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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109 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><legalnotice><para><inlinemediaobject><textobject><phrase>
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:326
373 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
374 #: freeculture.xml:329
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:340
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:336
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:345
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:354
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:365
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:377
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:372
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:392
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:400 freeculture.xml:13191
474 msgid "CodePink Women in Peace"
477 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><indexterm><primary>
478 #: freeculture.xml:401
482 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
483 #: freeculture.xml:412 freeculture.xml:422 freeculture.xml:13192
484 msgid "Safire, William"
487 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
488 #: freeculture.xml:403
490 "We saw a glimpse of this bipartisan outrage in the early summer of 2003. As "
491 "the FCC considered changes in media ownership rules that would relax limits "
492 "on media concentration, an extraordinary coalition generated more than "
493 "700,000 letters to the FCC opposing the change. As William Safire described "
494 "marching <quote>uncomfortably alongside CodePink Women for Peace and the "
495 "National Rifle Association, between liberal Olympia Snowe and conservative "
496 "Ted Stevens,</quote> he formulated perhaps most simply just what was at "
497 "stake: the concentration of power. And as he asked, <placeholder "
498 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
501 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
502 #: freeculture.xml:420
504 "William Safire, <quote>The Great Media Gulp,</quote> <citetitle>New York "
505 "Times</citetitle>, 22 May 2003. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
508 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><blockquote><para>
509 #: freeculture.xml:416
511 "Does that sound unconservative? Not to me. The concentration of "
512 "power—political, corporate, media, cultural—should be anathema "
513 "to conservatives. The diffusion of power through local control, thereby "
514 "encouraging individual participation, is the essence of federalism and the "
515 "greatest expression of democracy.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
518 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
519 #: freeculture.xml:427
521 "This idea is an element of the argument of <citetitle>Free "
522 "Culture</citetitle>, though my focus is not just on the concentration of "
523 "power produced by concentrations in ownership, but more importantly, if "
524 "because less visibly, on the concentration of power produced by a radical "
525 "change in the effective scope of the law. The law is changing; that change "
526 "is altering the way our culture gets made; that change should worry "
527 "you—whether or not you care about the Internet, and whether you're on "
528 "Safire's left or on his right."
531 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
532 #: freeculture.xml:437
534 "<emphasis role=\"strong\">The inspiration</emphasis> for the title and for "
535 "much of the argument of this book comes from the work of Richard Stallman "
536 "and the Free Software Foundation. Indeed, as I reread Stallman's own work, "
537 "especially the essays in <citetitle>Free Software, Free Society</citetitle>, "
538 "I realize that all of the theoretical insights I develop here are insights "
539 "Stallman described decades ago. One could thus well argue that this work is "
540 "<quote>merely</quote> derivative."
544 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
545 #: freeculture.xml:446
547 "I accept that criticism, if indeed it is a criticism. The work of a lawyer "
548 "is always derivative, and I mean to do nothing more in this book than to "
549 "remind a culture about a tradition that has always been its own. Like "
550 "Stallman, I defend that tradition on the basis of values. Like Stallman, I "
551 "believe those are the values of freedom. And like Stallman, I believe those "
552 "are values of our past that will need to be defended in our future. A free "
553 "culture has been our past, but it will only be our future if we change the "
554 "path we are on right now. Like Stallman's arguments for free software, an "
555 "argument for free culture stumbles on a confusion that is hard to avoid, and "
556 "even harder to understand. A free culture is not a culture without property; "
557 "it is not a culture in which artists don't get paid. A culture without "
558 "property, or in which creators can't get paid, is anarchy, not "
559 "freedom. Anarchy is not what I advance here."
562 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
563 #: freeculture.xml:464
565 "Instead, the free culture that I defend in this book is a balance between "
566 "anarchy and control. A free culture, like a free market, is filled with "
567 "property. It is filled with rules of property and contract that get enforced "
568 "by the state. But just as a free market is perverted if its property becomes "
569 "feudal, so too can a free culture be queered by extremism in the property "
570 "rights that define it. That is what I fear about our culture today. It is "
571 "against that extremism that this book is written."
574 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><title>
575 #: freeculture.xml:479
579 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
580 #: freeculture.xml:481
581 msgid "air traffic, land ownership vs."
584 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
585 #: freeculture.xml:484 freeculture.xml:14190
586 msgid "land ownership, air traffic and"
589 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
590 #: freeculture.xml:487 freeculture.xml:14192
591 msgid "property rights"
594 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
595 #: freeculture.xml:488 freeculture.xml:14193
596 msgid "air traffic vs."
599 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
600 #: freeculture.xml:490 freeculture.xml:586 freeculture.xml:1018
601 msgid "Wright brothers"
604 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
605 #: freeculture.xml:492
607 "<emphasis role=\"strong\">On December 17</emphasis>, 1903, on a windy North "
608 "Carolina beach for just shy of one hundred seconds, the Wright brothers "
609 "demonstrated that a heavier-than-air, self-propelled vehicle could fly. The "
610 "moment was electric and its importance widely understood. Almost "
611 "immediately, there was an explosion of interest in this newfound technology "
612 "of manned flight, and a gaggle of innovators began to build upon it."
615 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
616 #: freeculture.xml:504
618 "St. George Tucker, <citetitle>Blackstone's Commentaries</citetitle> 3 (South "
619 "Hackensack, N.J.: Rothman Reprints, 1969), 18."
622 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
623 #: freeculture.xml:500
625 "At the time the Wright brothers invented the airplane, American law held "
626 "that a property owner presumptively owned not just the surface of his land, "
627 "but all the land below, down to the center of the earth, and all the space "
628 "above, to <quote>an indefinite extent, upwards.</quote><placeholder "
629 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> For many years, scholars had puzzled about how "
630 "best to interpret the idea that rights in land ran to the heavens. Did that "
631 "mean that you owned the stars? Could you prosecute geese for their willful "
632 "and regular trespass?"
635 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
636 #: freeculture.xml:513
638 "Then came airplanes, and for the first time, this principle of American "
639 "law—deep within the foundations of our tradition, and acknowledged by "
640 "the most important legal thinkers of our past—mattered. If my land "
641 "reaches to the heavens, what happens when United flies over my field? Do I "
642 "have the right to banish it from my property? Am I allowed to enter into an "
643 "exclusive license with Delta Airlines? Could we set up an auction to decide "
644 "how much these rights are worth?"
647 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
648 #: freeculture.xml:521 freeculture.xml:534 freeculture.xml:565 freeculture.xml:584 freeculture.xml:999 freeculture.xml:1016 freeculture.xml:1063 freeculture.xml:9088 freeculture.xml:12561 freeculture.xml:13298
649 msgid "Causby, Thomas Lee"
652 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
653 #: freeculture.xml:522 freeculture.xml:535 freeculture.xml:566 freeculture.xml:585 freeculture.xml:1000 freeculture.xml:1017 freeculture.xml:1064 freeculture.xml:9089 freeculture.xml:12562 freeculture.xml:13299
654 msgid "Causby, Tinie"
657 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
658 #: freeculture.xml:524
660 "In 1945, these questions became a federal case. When North Carolina farmers "
661 "Thomas Lee and Tinie Causby started losing chickens because of low-flying "
662 "military aircraft (the terrified chickens apparently flew into the barn "
663 "walls and died), the Causbys filed a lawsuit saying that the government was "
664 "trespassing on their land. The airplanes, of course, never touched the "
665 "surface of the Causbys' land. But if, as Blackstone, Kent, and Coke had "
666 "said, their land reached to <quote>an indefinite extent, upwards,</quote> "
667 "then the government was trespassing on their property, and the Causbys "
671 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
672 #: freeculture.xml:537
674 "The Supreme Court agreed to hear the Causbys' case. Congress had declared "
675 "the airways public, but if one's property really extended to the heavens, "
676 "then Congress's declaration could well have been an unconstitutional "
677 "<quote>taking</quote> of property without compensation. The Court "
678 "acknowledged that <quote>it is ancient doctrine that common law ownership of "
679 "the land extended to the periphery of the universe.</quote> But Justice "
680 "Douglas had no patience for ancient doctrine. In a single paragraph, "
681 "hundreds of years of property law were erased. As he wrote for the Court,"
684 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
685 #: freeculture.xml:557
687 "United States v. Causby, U.S. 328 (1946): 256, 261. The Court did find that "
688 "there could be a <quote>taking</quote> if the government's use of its land "
689 "effectively destroyed the value of the Causbys' land. This example was "
690 "suggested to me by Keith Aoki's wonderful piece, <quote>(Intellectual) "
691 "Property and Sovereignty: Notes Toward a Cultural Geography of "
692 "Authorship,</quote> <citetitle>Stanford Law Review</citetitle> 48 (1996): "
693 "1293, 1333. See also Paul Goldstein, <citetitle>Real Property</citetitle> "
694 "(Mineola, N.Y.: Foundation Press, 1984), 1112–13. <placeholder "
695 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
698 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para>
699 #: freeculture.xml:548
701 "[The] doctrine has no place in the modern world. The air is a public "
702 "highway, as Congress has declared. Were that not true, every "
703 "transcontinental flight would subject the operator to countless trespass "
704 "suits. Common sense revolts at the idea. To recognize such private claims to "
705 "the airspace would clog these highways, seriously interfere with their "
706 "control and development in the public interest, and transfer into private "
707 "ownership that to which only the public has a just claim.<placeholder "
708 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
711 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
712 #: freeculture.xml:571
713 msgid "<quote>Common sense revolts at the idea.</quote>"
717 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
718 #: freeculture.xml:574
720 "This is how the law usually works. Not often this abruptly or impatiently, "
721 "but eventually, this is how it works. It was Douglas's style not to "
722 "dither. Other justices would have blathered on for pages to reach the "
723 "conclusion that Douglas holds in a single line: <quote>Common sense revolts "
724 "at the idea.</quote> But whether it takes pages or a few words, it is the "
725 "special genius of a common law system, as ours is, that the law adjusts to "
726 "the technologies of the time. And as it adjusts, it changes. Ideas that were "
727 "as solid as rock in one age crumble in another."
730 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
731 #: freeculture.xml:588
733 "Or at least, this is how things happen when there's no one powerful on the "
734 "other side of the change. The Causbys were just farmers. And though there "
735 "were no doubt many like them who were upset by the growing traffic in the "
736 "air (though one hopes not many chickens flew themselves into walls), the "
737 "Causbys of the world would find it very hard to unite and stop the idea, and "
738 "the technology, that the Wright brothers had birthed. The Wright brothers "
739 "spat airplanes into the technological meme pool; the idea then spread like a "
740 "virus in a chicken coop; farmers like the Causbys found themselves "
741 "surrounded by <quote>what seemed reasonable</quote> given the technology "
742 "that the Wrights had produced. They could stand on their farms, dead "
743 "chickens in hand, and shake their fists at these newfangled technologies all "
744 "they wanted. They could call their representatives or even file a "
745 "lawsuit. But in the end, the force of what seems <quote>obvious</quote> to "
746 "everyone else—the power of <quote>common sense</quote>—would "
747 "prevail. Their <quote>private interest</quote> would not be allowed to "
748 "defeat an obvious public gain."
751 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
752 #: freeculture.xml:609 freeculture.xml:9096 freeculture.xml:9751
753 msgid "Armstrong, Edwin Howard"
756 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
757 #: freeculture.xml:611
758 msgid "Bell, Alexander Graham"
761 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
762 #: freeculture.xml:612
763 msgid "Edison, Thomas"
766 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
767 #: freeculture.xml:613
768 msgid "Faraday, Michael"
772 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
773 #: freeculture.xml:615
775 "<emphasis role='strong'>Edwin Howard Armstrong</emphasis> is one of "
776 "America's forgotten inventor geniuses. He came to the great American "
777 "inventor scene just after the titans Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham "
778 "Bell. But his work in the area of radio technology was perhaps the most "
779 "important of any single inventor in the first fifty years of radio. He was "
780 "better educated than Michael Faraday, who as a bookbinder's apprentice had "
781 "discovered electric induction in 1831. But he had the same intuition about "
782 "how the world of radio worked, and on at least three occasions, Armstrong "
783 "invented profoundly important technologies that advanced our understanding "
787 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
788 #: freeculture.xml:628
790 "On the day after Christmas, 1933, four patents were issued to Armstrong for "
791 "his most significant invention—FM radio. Until then, consumer radio "
792 "had been amplitude-modulated (AM) radio. The theorists of the day had said "
793 "that frequency-modulated (FM) radio could never work. They were right about "
794 "FM radio in a narrow band of spectrum. But Armstrong discovered that "
795 "frequency-modulated radio in a wide band of spectrum would deliver an "
796 "astonishing fidelity of sound, with much less transmitter power and static."
799 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
800 #: freeculture.xml:638
802 "On November 5, 1935, he demonstrated the technology at a meeting of the "
803 "Institute of Radio Engineers at the Empire State Building in New York "
804 "City. He tuned his radio dial across a range of AM stations, until the radio "
805 "locked on a broadcast that he had arranged from seventeen miles away. The "
806 "radio fell totally silent, as if dead, and then with a clarity no one else "
807 "in that room had ever heard from an electrical device, it produced the sound "
808 "of an announcer's voice: <quote>This is amateur station W2AG at Yonkers, New "
809 "York, operating on frequency modulation at two and a half meters.</quote>"
812 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
813 #: freeculture.xml:649
814 msgid "The audience was hearing something no one had thought possible:"
817 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
818 #: freeculture.xml:660
820 "Lawrence Lessing, <citetitle>Man of High Fidelity: Edwin Howard "
821 "Armstrong</citetitle> (Philadelphia: J. B. Lipincott Company, 1956), 209."
824 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para>
825 #: freeculture.xml:653
827 "A glass of water was poured before the microphone in Yonkers; it sounded "
828 "like a glass of water being poured. … A paper was crumpled and torn; "
829 "it sounded like paper and not like a crackling forest fire. … Sousa "
830 "marches were played from records and a piano solo and guitar number were "
831 "performed. … The music was projected with a live-ness rarely if ever "
832 "heard before from a radio <quote>music box.</quote><placeholder "
833 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
837 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
838 #: freeculture.xml:666
840 "As our own common sense tells us, Armstrong had discovered a vastly superior "
841 "radio technology. But at the time of his invention, Armstrong was working "
842 "for RCA. RCA was the dominant player in the then dominant AM radio "
843 "market. By 1935, there were a thousand radio stations across the United "
844 "States, but the stations in large cities were all owned by a handful of "
848 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
849 #: freeculture.xml:680 freeculture.xml:703
850 msgid "Sarnoff, David"
853 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
854 #: freeculture.xml:675
856 "RCA's president, David Sarnoff, a friend of Armstrong's, was eager that "
857 "Armstrong discover a way to remove static from AM radio. So Sarnoff was "
858 "quite excited when Armstrong told him he had a device that removed static "
859 "from <quote>radio.</quote> But when Armstrong demonstrated his invention, "
860 "Sarnoff was not pleased. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
863 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
864 #: freeculture.xml:687
866 "See <quote>Saints: The Heroes and Geniuses of the Electronic Era,</quote> "
867 "First Electronic Church of America, at www.webstationone.com/fecha, "
868 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #1</ulink>."
871 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para>
872 #: freeculture.xml:684
874 "I thought Armstrong would invent some kind of a filter to remove static from "
875 "our AM radio. I didn't think he'd start a revolution— start up a whole "
876 "damn new industry to compete with RCA.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
880 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
881 #: freeculture.xml:696
882 msgid "Lessing, Lawrence"
885 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
886 #: freeculture.xml:699
888 "Armstrong's invention threatened RCA's AM empire, so the company launched a "
889 "campaign to smother FM radio. While FM may have been a superior technology, "
890 "Sarnoff was a superior tactician. As one author described, <placeholder "
891 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
894 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
895 #: freeculture.xml:712
896 msgid "Lessing, 226."
899 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para>
900 #: freeculture.xml:707
902 "The forces for FM, largely engineering, could not overcome the weight of "
903 "strategy devised by the sales, patent, and legal offices to subdue this "
904 "threat to corporate position. For FM, if allowed to develop unrestrained, "
905 "posed … a complete reordering of radio power … and the "
906 "eventual overthrow of the carefully restricted AM system on which RCA had "
907 "grown to power.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
910 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
911 #: freeculture.xml:717
913 "RCA at first kept the technology in house, insisting that further tests were "
914 "needed. When, after two years of testing, Armstrong grew impatient, RCA "
915 "began to use its power with the government to stall FM radio's deployment "
916 "generally. In 1936, RCA hired the former head of the FCC and assigned him "
917 "the task of assuring that the FCC assign spectrum in a way that would "
918 "castrate FM—principally by moving FM radio to a different band of "
919 "spectrum. At first, these efforts failed. But when Armstrong and the nation "
920 "were distracted by World War II, RCA's work began to be more "
921 "successful. Soon after the war ended, the FCC announced a set of policies "
922 "that would have one clear effect: FM radio would be crippled. As Lawrence "
923 "Lessing described it,"
926 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
927 #: freeculture.xml:736
928 msgid "Lessing, 256."
931 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para>
932 #: freeculture.xml:732
934 "The series of body blows that FM radio received right after the war, in a "
935 "series of rulings manipulated through the FCC by the big radio interests, "
936 "were almost incredible in their force and deviousness.<placeholder "
937 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
940 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
941 #: freeculture.xml:741
945 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
946 #: freeculture.xml:743
948 "To make room in the spectrum for RCA's latest gamble, television, FM radio "
949 "users were to be moved to a totally new spectrum band. The power of FM radio "
950 "stations was also cut, meaning FM could no longer be used to beam programs "
951 "from one part of the country to another. (This change was strongly "
952 "supported by AT&T, because the loss of FM relaying stations would mean "
953 "radio stations would have to buy wired links from AT&T.) The spread of "
954 "FM radio was thus choked, at least temporarily."
957 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
958 #: freeculture.xml:753
960 "Armstrong resisted RCA's efforts. In response, RCA resisted Armstrong's "
961 "patents. After incorporating FM technology into the emerging standard for "
962 "television, RCA declared the patents invalid—baselessly, and almost "
963 "fifteen years after they were issued. It thus refused to pay him "
964 "royalties. For six years, Armstrong fought an expensive war of litigation to "
965 "defend the patents. Finally, just as the patents expired, RCA offered a "
966 "settlement so low that it would not even cover Armstrong's lawyers' "
967 "fees. Defeated, broken, and now broke, in 1954 Armstrong wrote a short note "
968 "to his wife and then stepped out of a thirteenth-story window to his death."
972 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
973 #: freeculture.xml:766
975 "This is how the law sometimes works. Not often this tragically, and rarely "
976 "with heroic drama, but sometimes, this is how it works. From the beginning, "
977 "government and government agencies have been subject to capture. They are "
978 "more likely captured when a powerful interest is threatened by either a "
979 "legal or technical change. That powerful interest too often exerts its "
980 "influence within the government to get the government to protect it. The "
981 "rhetoric of this protection is of course always public spirited; the reality "
982 "is something different. Ideas that were as solid as rock in one age, but "
983 "that, left to themselves, would crumble in another, are sustained through "
984 "this subtle corruption of our political process. RCA had what the Causbys "
985 "did not: the power to stifle the effect of technological change."
988 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
989 #: freeculture.xml:788
991 "Amanda Lenhart, <quote>The Ever-Shifting Internet Population: A New Look at "
992 "Internet Access and the Digital Divide,</quote> Pew Internet and American "
993 "Life Project, 15 April 2003: 6, available at <ulink "
994 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #2</ulink>."
997 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
998 #: freeculture.xml:782
1000 "<emphasis role=\"strong\">There's no</emphasis> single inventor of the "
1001 "Internet. Nor is there any good date upon which to mark its birth. Yet in a "
1002 "very short time, the Internet has become part of ordinary American "
1003 "life. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 58 percent of "
1004 "Americans had access to the Internet in 2002, up from 49 percent two years "
1005 "before.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> That number could well "
1006 "exceed two thirds of the nation by the end of 2004."
1009 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1010 #: freeculture.xml:797
1012 "As the Internet has been integrated into ordinary life, it has changed "
1013 "things. Some of these changes are technical—the Internet has made "
1014 "communication faster, it has lowered the cost of gathering data, and so "
1015 "on. These technical changes are not the focus of this book. They are "
1016 "important. They are not well understood. But they are the sort of thing that "
1017 "would simply go away if we all just switched the Internet off. They don't "
1018 "affect people who don't use the Internet, or at least they don't affect them "
1019 "directly. They are the proper subject of a book about the Internet. But this "
1020 "is not a book about the Internet."
1023 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1024 #: freeculture.xml:808
1026 "Instead, this book is about an effect of the Internet beyond the Internet "
1027 "itself: an effect upon how culture is made. My claim is that the Internet "
1028 "has induced an important and unrecognized change in that process. That "
1029 "change will radically transform a tradition that is as old as the Republic "
1030 "itself. Most, if they recognized this change, would reject it. Yet most "
1031 "don't even see the change that the Internet has introduced."
1034 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
1035 #: freeculture.xml:827
1036 msgid "Barlow, Joel"
1039 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
1040 #: freeculture.xml:828
1041 msgid "Webster, Noah"
1044 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1045 #: freeculture.xml:817
1047 "We can glimpse a sense of this change by distinguishing between commercial "
1048 "and noncommercial culture, and by mapping the law's regulation of each. By "
1049 "<quote>commercial culture</quote> I mean that part of our culture that is "
1050 "produced and sold or produced to be sold. By <quote>noncommercial "
1051 "culture</quote> I mean all the rest. When old men sat around parks or on "
1052 "street corners telling stories that kids and others consumed, that was "
1053 "noncommercial culture. When Noah Webster published his "
1054 "<quote>Reader,</quote> or Joel Barlow his poetry, that was commercial "
1055 "culture. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
1056 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
1059 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1060 #: freeculture.xml:831
1062 "At the beginning of our history, and for just about the whole of our "
1063 "tradition, noncommercial culture was essentially unregulated. Of course, if "
1064 "your stories were lewd, or if your song disturbed the peace, then the law "
1065 "might intervene. But the law was never directly concerned with the creation "
1066 "or spread of this form of culture, and it left this culture "
1067 "<quote>free.</quote> The ordinary ways in which ordinary individuals shared "
1068 "and transformed their culture—telling stories, reenacting scenes from "
1069 "plays or TV, participating in fan clubs, sharing music, making "
1070 "tapes—were left alone by the law."
1073 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
1074 #: freeculture.xml:856 freeculture.xml:1894 freeculture.xml:1905
1075 msgid "Brandeis, Louis D."
1078 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1079 #: freeculture.xml:848
1081 "This is not the only purpose of copyright, though it is the overwhelmingly "
1082 "primary purpose of the copyright established in the federal constitution. "
1083 "State copyright law historically protected not just the commercial interest "
1084 "in publication, but also a privacy interest. By granting authors the "
1085 "exclusive right to first publication, state copyright law gave authors the "
1086 "power to control the spread of facts about them. See Samuel D. Warren and "
1087 "Louis D. Brandeis, <quote>The Right to Privacy,</quote> Harvard Law Review 4 "
1088 "(1890): 193, 198–200. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
1091 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1092 #: freeculture.xml:842
1094 "The focus of the law was on commercial creativity. At first slightly, then "
1095 "quite extensively, the law protected the incentives of creators by granting "
1096 "them exclusive rights to their creative work, so that they could sell those "
1097 "exclusive rights in a commercial marketplace.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
1098 "id=\"0\"/> This is also, of course, an important part of creativity and "
1099 "culture, and it has become an increasingly important part in America. But in "
1100 "no sense was it dominant within our tradition. It was instead just one part, "
1101 "a controlled part, balanced with the free."
1104 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
1105 #: freeculture.xml:868 freeculture.xml:9641
1106 msgid "Litman, Jessica"
1109 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1110 #: freeculture.xml:866
1112 "See Jessica Litman, <citetitle>Digital Copyright</citetitle> (New York: "
1113 "Prometheus Books, 2001), ch. 13. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
1116 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1117 #: freeculture.xml:864
1119 "This rough divide between the free and the controlled has now been "
1120 "erased.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The Internet has set the "
1121 "stage for this erasure and, pushed by big media, the law has now affected "
1122 "it. For the first time in our tradition, the ordinary ways in which "
1123 "individuals create and share culture fall within the reach of the regulation "
1124 "of the law, which has expanded to draw within its control a vast amount of "
1125 "culture and creativity that it never reached before. The technology that "
1126 "preserved the balance of our history—between uses of our culture that "
1127 "were free and uses of our culture that were only upon permission—has "
1128 "been undone. The consequence is that we are less and less a free culture, "
1129 "more and more a permission culture."
1132 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1133 #: freeculture.xml:883
1135 "This change gets justified as necessary to protect commercial creativity. "
1136 "And indeed, protectionism is precisely its motivation. But the protectionism "
1137 "that justifies the changes that I will describe below is not the limited and "
1138 "balanced sort that has defined the law in the past. This is not a "
1139 "protectionism to protect artists. It is instead a protectionism to protect "
1140 "certain forms of business. Corporations threatened by the potential of the "
1141 "Internet to change the way both commercial and noncommercial culture are "
1142 "made and shared have united to induce lawmakers to use the law to protect "
1143 "them. It is the story of RCA and Armstrong; it is the dream of the Causbys."
1146 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1147 #: freeculture.xml:896
1149 "For the Internet has unleashed an extraordinary possibility for many to "
1150 "participate in the process of building and cultivating a culture that "
1151 "reaches far beyond local boundaries. That power has changed the marketplace "
1152 "for making and cultivating culture generally, and that change in turn "
1153 "threatens established content industries. The Internet is thus to the "
1154 "industries that built and distributed content in the twentieth century what "
1155 "FM radio was to AM radio, or what the truck was to the railroad industry of "
1156 "the nineteenth century: the beginning of the end, or at least a substantial "
1157 "transformation. Digital technologies, tied to the Internet, could produce a "
1158 "vastly more competitive and vibrant market for building and cultivating "
1159 "culture; that market could include a much wider and more diverse range of "
1160 "creators; those creators could produce and distribute a much more vibrant "
1161 "range of creativity; and depending upon a few important factors, those "
1162 "creators could earn more on average from this system than creators do "
1163 "today—all so long as the RCAs of our day don't use the law to protect "
1164 "themselves against this competition."
1167 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1168 #: freeculture.xml:915
1170 "Yet, as I argue in the pages that follow, that is precisely what is "
1171 "happening in our culture today. These modern-day equivalents of the early "
1172 "twentieth-century radio or nineteenth-century railroads are using their "
1173 "power to get the law to protect them against this new, more efficient, more "
1174 "vibrant technology for building culture. They are succeeding in their plan "
1175 "to remake the Internet before the Internet remakes them."
1178 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1179 #: freeculture.xml:932
1181 "Amy Harmon, <quote>Black Hawk Download: Moving Beyond Music, Pirates Use New "
1182 "Tools to Turn the Net into an Illicit Video Club,</quote> <citetitle>New "
1183 "York Times</citetitle>, 17 January 2002."
1186 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1187 #: freeculture.xml:924
1189 "It doesn't seem this way to many. The battles over copyright and the "
1190 "Internet seem remote to most. To the few who follow them, they seem mainly "
1191 "about a much simpler brace of questions—whether <quote>piracy</quote> "
1192 "will be permitted, and whether <quote>property</quote> will be "
1193 "protected. The <quote>war</quote> that has been waged against the "
1194 "technologies of the Internet—what Motion Picture Association of "
1195 "America (MPAA) president Jack Valenti calls his <quote>own terrorist "
1196 "war</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>—has been framed "
1197 "as a battle about the rule of law and respect for property. To know which "
1198 "side to take in this war, most think that we need only decide whether we're "
1199 "for property or against it."
1202 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1203 #: freeculture.xml:941
1205 "If those really were the choices, then I would be with Jack Valenti and the "
1206 "content industry. I, too, am a believer in property, and especially in the "
1207 "importance of what Mr. Valenti nicely calls <quote>creative "
1208 "property.</quote> I believe that <quote>piracy</quote> is wrong, and that "
1209 "the law, properly tuned, should punish <quote>piracy,</quote> whether on or "
1213 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1214 #: freeculture.xml:949
1216 "But those simple beliefs mask a much more fundamental question and a much "
1217 "more dramatic change. My fear is that unless we come to see this change, the "
1218 "war to rid the world of Internet <quote>pirates</quote> will also rid our "
1219 "culture of values that have been integral to our tradition from the start."
1222 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
1223 #: freeculture.xml:963 freeculture.xml:14594
1224 msgid "Netanel, Neil Weinstock"
1227 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1228 #: freeculture.xml:961
1230 "Neil W. Netanel, <quote>Copyright and a Democratic Civil Society,</quote> "
1231 "<citetitle>Yale Law Journal</citetitle> 106 (1996): 283. <placeholder "
1232 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
1235 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1236 #: freeculture.xml:955
1238 "These values built a tradition that, for at least the first 180 years of our "
1239 "Republic, guaranteed creators the right to build freely upon their past, and "
1240 "protected creators and innovators from either state or private control. The "
1241 "First Amendment protected creators against state control. And as Professor "
1242 "Neil Netanel powerfully argues,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
1243 "copyright law, properly balanced, protected creators against private "
1244 "control. Our tradition was thus neither Soviet nor the tradition of "
1245 "patrons. It instead carved out a wide berth within which creators could "
1246 "cultivate and extend our culture."
1249 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1250 #: freeculture.xml:971
1252 "Yet the law's response to the Internet, when tied to changes in the "
1253 "technology of the Internet itself, has massively increased the effective "
1254 "regulation of creativity in America. To build upon or critique the culture "
1255 "around us one must ask, Oliver Twist–like, for permission first. "
1256 "Permission is, of course, often granted—but it is not often granted to "
1257 "the critical or the independent. We have built a kind of cultural nobility; "
1258 "those within the noble class live easily; those outside it don't. But it is "
1259 "nobility of any form that is alien to our tradition."
1262 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1263 #: freeculture.xml:983
1265 "The story that follows is about this war. Is it not about the "
1266 "<quote>centrality of technology</quote> to ordinary life. I don't believe in "
1267 "gods, digital or otherwise. Nor is it an effort to demonize any individual "
1268 "or group, for neither do I believe in a devil, corporate or otherwise. It is "
1269 "not a morality tale. Nor is it a call to jihad against an industry."
1272 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1273 #: freeculture.xml:991
1275 "It is instead an effort to understand a hopelessly destructive war inspired "
1276 "by the technologies of the Internet but reaching far beyond its code. And by "
1277 "understanding this battle, it is an effort to map peace. There is no good "
1278 "reason for the current struggle around Internet technologies to "
1279 "continue. There will be great harm to our tradition and culture if it is "
1280 "allowed to continue unchecked. We must come to understand the source of this "
1281 "war. We must resolve it soon."
1284 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1285 #: freeculture.xml:1002
1287 "<emphasis role=\"strong\">Like the Causbys'</emphasis> battle, this war is, "
1288 "in part, about <quote>property.</quote> The property of this war is not as "
1289 "tangible as the Causbys', and no innocent chicken has yet to lose its "
1290 "life. Yet the ideas surrounding this <quote>property</quote> are as obvious "
1291 "to most as the Causbys' claim about the sacredness of their farm was to "
1292 "them. We are the Causbys. Most of us take for granted the extraordinarily "
1293 "powerful claims that the owners of <quote>intellectual property</quote> now "
1294 "assert. Most of us, like the Causbys, treat these claims as obvious. And "
1295 "hence we, like the Causbys, object when a new technology interferes with "
1296 "this property. It is as plain to us as it was to them that the new "
1297 "technologies of the Internet are <quote>trespassing</quote> upon legitimate "
1298 "claims of <quote>property.</quote> It is as plain to us as it was to them "
1299 "that the law should intervene to stop this trespass."
1303 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1304 #: freeculture.xml:1020
1306 "And thus, when geeks and technologists defend their Armstrong or Wright "
1307 "brothers technology, most of us are simply unsympathetic. Common sense does "
1308 "not revolt. Unlike in the case of the unlucky Causbys, common sense is on "
1309 "the side of the property owners in this war. Unlike the lucky Wright "
1310 "brothers, the Internet has not inspired a revolution on its side."
1313 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1314 #: freeculture.xml:1030
1316 "My hope is to push this common sense along. I have become increasingly "
1317 "amazed by the power of this idea of intellectual property and, more "
1318 "importantly, its power to disable critical thought by policy makers and "
1319 "citizens. There has never been a time in our history when more of our "
1320 "<quote>culture</quote> was as <quote>owned</quote> as it is now. And yet "
1321 "there has never been a time when the concentration of power to control the "
1322 "<emphasis>uses</emphasis> of culture has been as unquestioningly accepted as "
1326 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1327 #: freeculture.xml:1040
1329 "The puzzle is, Why? Is it because we have come to understand a truth about "
1330 "the value and importance of absolute property over ideas and culture? Is it "
1331 "because we have discovered that our tradition of rejecting such an absolute "
1335 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1336 #: freeculture.xml:1046
1338 "Or is it because the idea of absolute property over ideas and culture "
1339 "benefits the RCAs of our time and fits our own unreflective intuitions?"
1342 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1343 #: freeculture.xml:1050
1345 "Is the radical shift away from our tradition of free culture an instance of "
1346 "America correcting a mistake from its past, as we did after a bloody war "
1347 "with slavery, and as we are slowly doing with inequality? Or is the radical "
1348 "shift away from our tradition of free culture yet another example of a "
1349 "political system captured by a few powerful special interests?"
1352 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1353 #: freeculture.xml:1057
1355 "Does common sense lead to the extremes on this question because common sense "
1356 "actually believes in these extremes? Or does common sense stand silent in "
1357 "the face of these extremes because, as with Armstrong versus RCA, the more "
1358 "powerful side has ensured that it has the more powerful view?"
1362 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1363 #: freeculture.xml:1066
1365 "I don't mean to be mysterious. My own views are resolved. I believe it was "
1366 "right for common sense to revolt against the extremism of the Causbys. I "
1367 "believe it would be right for common sense to revolt against the extreme "
1368 "claims made today on behalf of <quote>intellectual property.</quote> What "
1369 "the law demands today is increasingly as silly as a sheriff arresting an "
1370 "airplane for trespass. But the consequences of this silliness will be much "
1374 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1375 #: freeculture.xml:1076
1377 "<emphasis role=\"strong\">The struggle</emphasis> that rages just now "
1378 "centers on two ideas: <quote>piracy</quote> and <quote>property.</quote> My "
1379 "aim in this book's next two parts is to explore these two ideas."
1382 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1383 #: freeculture.xml:1081
1385 "My method is not the usual method of an academic. I don't want to plunge you "
1386 "into a complex argument, buttressed with references to obscure French "
1387 "theorists—however natural that is for the weird sort we academics have "
1388 "become. Instead I begin in each part with a collection of stories that set a "
1389 "context within which these apparently simple ideas can be more fully "
1393 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1394 #: freeculture.xml:1089
1396 "The two sections set up the core claim of this book: that while the Internet "
1397 "has indeed produced something fantastic and new, our government, pushed by "
1398 "big media to respond to this <quote>something new,</quote> is destroying "
1399 "something very old. Rather than understanding the changes the Internet might "
1400 "permit, and rather than taking time to let <quote>common sense</quote> "
1401 "resolve how best to respond, we are allowing those most threatened by the "
1402 "changes to use their power to change the law—and more importantly, to "
1403 "use their power to change something fundamental about who we have always "
1407 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1408 #: freeculture.xml:1100
1410 "We allow this, I believe, not because it is right, and not because most of "
1411 "us really believe in these changes. We allow it because the interests most "
1412 "threatened are among the most powerful players in our depressingly "
1413 "compromised process of making law. This book is the story of one more "
1414 "consequence of this form of corruption—a consequence to which most of "
1415 "us remain oblivious."
1418 #. type: Content of: <book><part><title>
1419 #: freeculture.xml:1110
1420 msgid "<quote>PIRACY</quote>"
1423 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1424 #: freeculture.xml:1114 freeculture.xml:4857
1425 msgid "Mansfield, William Murray, Lord"
1428 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1429 #: freeculture.xml:1117
1431 "<emphasis role=\"strong\">Since the inception</emphasis> of the law "
1432 "regulating creative property, there has been a war against "
1433 "<quote>piracy.</quote> The precise contours of this concept, "
1434 "<quote>piracy,</quote> are hard to sketch, but the animating injustice is "
1435 "easy to capture. As Lord Mansfield wrote in a case that extended the reach "
1436 "of English copyright law to include sheet music,"
1440 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
1441 #: freeculture.xml:1129
1443 "<citetitle>Bach</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Longman</citetitle>, 98 "
1444 "Eng. Rep. 1274 (1777) (Mansfield)."
1447 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><blockquote><para>
1448 #: freeculture.xml:1125
1450 "A person may use the copy by playing it, but he has no right to rob the "
1451 "author of the profit, by multiplying copies and disposing of them for his "
1452 "own use.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
1456 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1457 #: freeculture.xml:1135
1459 "Today we are in the middle of another <quote>war</quote> against "
1460 "<quote>piracy.</quote> The Internet has provoked this war. The Internet "
1461 "makes possible the efficient spread of content. Peer-to-peer (p2p) file "
1462 "sharing is among the most efficient of the efficient technologies the "
1463 "Internet enables. Using distributed intelligence, p2p systems facilitate the "
1464 "easy spread of content in a way unimagined a generation ago."
1467 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1468 #: freeculture.xml:1144
1470 "This efficiency does not respect the traditional lines of copyright. The "
1471 "network doesn't discriminate between the sharing of copyrighted and "
1472 "uncopyrighted content. Thus has there been a vast amount of sharing of "
1473 "copyrighted content. That sharing in turn has excited the war, as copyright "
1474 "owners fear the sharing will <quote>rob the author of the profit.</quote>"
1477 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1478 #: freeculture.xml:1152
1480 "The warriors have turned to the courts, to the legislatures, and "
1481 "increasingly to technology to defend their <quote>property</quote> against "
1482 "this <quote>piracy.</quote> A generation of Americans, the warriors warn, is "
1483 "being raised to believe that <quote>property</quote> should be "
1484 "<quote>free.</quote> Forget tattoos, never mind body piercing—our kids "
1485 "are becoming <emphasis>thieves</emphasis>!"
1488 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1489 #: freeculture.xml:1160
1491 "There's no doubt that <quote>piracy</quote> is wrong, and that pirates "
1492 "should be punished. But before we summon the executioners, we should put "
1493 "this notion of <quote>piracy</quote> in some context. For as the concept is "
1494 "increasingly used, at its core is an extraordinary idea that is almost "
1498 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1499 #: freeculture.xml:1166
1500 msgid "The idea goes something like this:"
1503 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><blockquote><para>
1504 #: freeculture.xml:1170
1506 "Creative work has value; whenever I use, or take, or build upon the creative "
1507 "work of others, I am taking from them something of value. Whenever I take "
1508 "something of value from someone else, I should have their permission. The "
1509 "taking of something of value from someone else without permission is "
1510 "wrong. It is a form of piracy."
1513 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><indexterm><primary>
1514 #: freeculture.xml:1178
1515 msgid "Dreyfuss, Rochelle"
1518 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><indexterm><primary>
1519 #: freeculture.xml:1179
1520 msgid "Girl Schouts"
1523 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1524 #: freeculture.xml:1181 freeculture.xml:2871
1525 msgid "<quote>if value, then right</quote> theory"
1529 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para>
1530 #: freeculture.xml:1188
1532 "See Rochelle Dreyfuss, <quote>Expressive Genericity: Trademarks as Language "
1533 "in the Pepsi Generation,</quote> <citetitle>Notre Dame Law "
1534 "Review</citetitle> 65 (1990): 397."
1537 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
1538 #: freeculture.xml:1201 freeculture.xml:7021
1539 msgid "Zittrain, Jonathan"
1542 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para>
1543 #: freeculture.xml:1196
1545 "Lisa Bannon, <quote>The Birds May Sing, but Campers Can't Unless They Pay "
1546 "Up,</quote> <citetitle>Wall Street Journal</citetitle>, 21 August 1996, "
1547 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #3</ulink>; "
1548 "Jonathan Zittrain, <quote>Calling Off the Copyright War: In Battle of "
1549 "Property vs. Free Speech, No One Wins,</quote> <citetitle>Boston "
1550 "Globe</citetitle>, 24 November 2002. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
1554 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1555 #: freeculture.xml:1184
1557 "This view runs deep within the current debates. It is what NYU law professor "
1558 "Rochelle Dreyfuss criticizes as the <quote>if value, then right</quote> "
1559 "theory of creative property<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
1560 "—if there is value, then someone must have a right to that value. It "
1561 "is the perspective that led a composers' rights organization, ASCAP, to sue "
1562 "the Girl Scouts for failing to pay for the songs that girls sang around Girl "
1563 "Scout campfires.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> There was "
1564 "<quote>value</quote> (the songs) so there must have been a "
1565 "<quote>right</quote>—even against the Girl Scouts."
1568 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><indexterm><primary>
1569 #: freeculture.xml:1206
1574 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1575 #: freeculture.xml:1208
1577 "This idea is certainly a possible understanding of how creative property "
1578 "should work. It might well be a possible design for a system of law "
1579 "protecting creative property. But the <quote>if value, then right</quote> "
1580 "theory of creative property has never been America's theory of creative "
1581 "property. It has never taken hold within our law."
1584 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1585 #: freeculture.xml:1217
1587 "Instead, in our tradition, intellectual property is an instrument. It sets "
1588 "the groundwork for a richly creative society but remains subservient to the "
1589 "value of creativity. The current debate has this turned around. We have "
1590 "become so concerned with protecting the instrument that we are losing sight "
1594 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1595 #: freeculture.xml:1224
1597 "The source of this confusion is a distinction that the law no longer takes "
1598 "care to draw—the distinction between republishing someone's work on "
1599 "the one hand and building upon or transforming that work on the "
1600 "other. Copyright law at its birth had only publishing as its concern; "
1601 "copyright law today regulates both."
1604 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1605 #: freeculture.xml:1231
1607 "Before the technologies of the Internet, this conflation didn't matter all "
1608 "that much. The technologies of publishing were expensive; that meant the "
1609 "vast majority of publishing was commercial. Commercial entities could bear "
1610 "the burden of the law—even the burden of the Byzantine complexity that "
1611 "copyright law has become. It was just one more expense of doing business."
1614 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
1615 #: freeculture.xml:1238 freeculture.xml:1269
1616 msgid "Florida, Richard"
1619 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
1620 #: freeculture.xml:1239 freeculture.xml:1270
1621 msgid "Rise of the Creative Class, The (Florida)"
1624 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para>
1625 #: freeculture.xml:1261
1627 "In <citetitle>The Rise of the Creative Class</citetitle> (New York: Basic "
1628 "Books, 2002), Richard Florida documents a shift in the nature of labor "
1629 "toward a labor of creativity. His work, however, doesn't directly address "
1630 "the legal conditions under which that creativity is enabled or stifled. I "
1631 "certainly agree with him about the importance and significance of this "
1632 "change, but I also believe the conditions under which it will be enabled are "
1633 "much more tenuous. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
1634 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
1637 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1638 #: freeculture.xml:1241
1640 "But with the birth of the Internet, this natural limit to the reach of the "
1641 "law has disappeared. The law controls not just the creativity of commercial "
1642 "creators but effectively that of anyone. Although that expansion would not "
1643 "matter much if copyright law regulated only <quote>copying,</quote> when the "
1644 "law regulates as broadly and obscurely as it does, the extension matters a "
1645 "lot. The burden of this law now vastly outweighs any original "
1646 "benefit—certainly as it affects noncommercial creativity, and "
1647 "increasingly as it affects commercial creativity as well. Thus, as we'll see "
1648 "more clearly in the chapters below, the law's role is less and less to "
1649 "support creativity, and more and more to protect certain industries against "
1650 "competition. Just at the time digital technology could unleash an "
1651 "extraordinary range of commercial and noncommercial creativity, the law "
1652 "burdens this creativity with insanely complex and vague rules and with the "
1653 "threat of obscenely severe penalties. We may be seeing, as Richard Florida "
1654 "writes, the <quote>Rise of the Creative Class.</quote><placeholder "
1655 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Unfortunately, we are also seeing an "
1656 "extraordinary rise of regulation of this creative class."
1659 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1660 #: freeculture.xml:1276
1662 "These burdens make no sense in our tradition. We should begin by "
1663 "understanding that tradition a bit more and by placing in their proper "
1664 "context the current battles about behavior labeled <quote>piracy.</quote>"
1667 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
1668 #: freeculture.xml:1284
1669 msgid "CHAPTER ONE: Creators"
1672 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1673 #: freeculture.xml:1286
1674 msgid "animated cartoons"
1677 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1678 #: freeculture.xml:1289
1680 "<emphasis role=\"strong\">In 1928</emphasis>, a cartoon character was "
1681 "born. An early Mickey Mouse made his debut in May of that year, in a silent "
1682 "flop called <citetitle>Plane Crazy</citetitle>. In November, in New York "
1683 "City's Colony Theater, in the first widely distributed cartoon synchronized "
1684 "with sound, <citetitle>Steamboat Willie</citetitle> brought to life the "
1685 "character that would become Mickey Mouse."
1688 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1689 #: freeculture.xml:1296
1691 "Synchronized sound had been introduced to film a year earlier in the movie "
1692 "<citetitle>The Jazz Singer</citetitle>. That success led Walt Disney to copy "
1693 "the technique and mix sound with cartoons. No one knew whether it would work "
1694 "or, if it did work, whether it would win an audience. But when Disney ran a "
1695 "test in the summer of 1928, the results were unambiguous. As Disney "
1696 "describes that first experiment,"
1700 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
1701 #: freeculture.xml:1305
1703 "A couple of my boys could read music, and one of them could play a mouth "
1704 "organ. We put them in a room where they could not see the screen and "
1705 "arranged to pipe their sound into the room where our wives and friends were "
1706 "going to see the picture."
1709 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
1710 #: freeculture.xml:1312
1712 "The boys worked from a music and sound-effects score. After several false "
1713 "starts, sound and action got off with the gun. The mouth organist played the "
1714 "tune, the rest of us in the sound department bammed tin pans and blew slide "
1715 "whistles on the beat. The synchronization was pretty close."
1719 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
1720 #: freeculture.xml:1325
1722 "Leonard Maltin, <citetitle>Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated "
1723 "Cartoons</citetitle> (New York: Penguin Books, 1987), 34–35."
1726 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
1727 #: freeculture.xml:1319
1729 "The effect on our little audience was nothing less than electric. They "
1730 "responded almost instinctively to this union of sound and motion. I thought "
1731 "they were kidding me. So they put me in the audience and ran the action "
1732 "again. It was terrible, but it was wonderful! And it was something "
1733 "new!<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
1736 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
1737 #: freeculture.xml:1334
1741 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1742 #: freeculture.xml:1331
1744 "Disney's then partner, and one of animation's most extraordinary talents, Ub "
1745 "Iwerks, put it more strongly: <quote>I have never been so thrilled in my "
1746 "life. Nothing since has ever equaled it.</quote> <placeholder "
1747 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
1750 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1751 #: freeculture.xml:1337
1753 "Disney had created something very new, based upon something relatively "
1754 "new. Synchronized sound brought life to a form of creativity that had "
1755 "rarely—except in Disney's hands—been anything more than filler "
1756 "for other films. Throughout animation's early history, it was Disney's "
1757 "invention that set the standard that others struggled to match. And quite "
1758 "often, Disney's great genius, his spark of creativity, was built upon the "
1762 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1763 #: freeculture.xml:1346
1765 "This much is familiar. What you might not know is that 1928 also marks "
1766 "another important transition. In that year, a comic (as opposed to cartoon) "
1767 "genius created his last independently produced silent film. That genius was "
1768 "Buster Keaton. The film was <citetitle>Steamboat Bill, Jr</citetitle>."
1771 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1772 #: freeculture.xml:1352
1774 "Keaton was born into a vaudeville family in 1895. In the era of silent film, "
1775 "he had mastered using broad physical comedy as a way to spark uncontrollable "
1776 "laughter from his audience. <citetitle>Steamboat Bill, Jr</citetitle>. was a "
1777 "classic of this form, famous among film buffs for its incredible stunts. "
1778 "The film was classic Keaton—wildly popular and among the best of its "
1783 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1784 #: freeculture.xml:1366
1786 "I am grateful to David Gerstein and his careful history, described at <ulink "
1787 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #4</ulink>. According to Dave "
1788 "Smith of the Disney Archives, Disney paid royalties to use the music for "
1789 "five songs in <citetitle>Steamboat Willie</citetitle>: <quote>Steamboat "
1790 "Bill,</quote> <quote>The Simpleton</quote> (Delille), <quote>Mischief "
1791 "Makers</quote> (Carbonara), <quote>Joyful Hurry No. 1</quote> (Baron), and "
1792 "<quote>Gawky Rube</quote> (Lakay). A sixth song, <quote>The Turkey in the "
1793 "Straw,</quote> was already in the public domain. Letter from David Smith to "
1794 "Harry Surden, 10 July 2003, on file with author."
1797 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1798 #: freeculture.xml:1360
1800 "<citetitle>Steamboat Bill, Jr</citetitle>. appeared before Disney's cartoon "
1801 "Steamboat Willie. The coincidence of titles is not coincidental. Steamboat "
1802 "Willie is a direct cartoon parody of Steamboat Bill,<placeholder "
1803 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> and both are built upon a common song as a "
1804 "source. It is not just from the invention of synchronized sound in "
1805 "<citetitle>The Jazz Singer</citetitle> that we get <citetitle>Steamboat "
1806 "Willie</citetitle>. It is also from Buster Keaton's invention of Steamboat "
1807 "Bill, Jr., itself inspired by the song <quote>Steamboat Bill,</quote> that "
1808 "we get Steamboat Willie, and then from Steamboat Willie, Mickey Mouse."
1812 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1813 #: freeculture.xml:1387
1815 "He was also a fan of the public domain. See Chris Sprigman, <quote>The Mouse "
1816 "that Ate the Public Domain,</quote> Findlaw, 5 March 2002, at <ulink "
1817 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #5</ulink>."
1820 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1821 #: freeculture.xml:1383
1823 "This <quote>borrowing</quote> was nothing unique, either for Disney or for "
1824 "the industry. Disney was always parroting the feature-length mainstream "
1825 "films of his day.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> So did many "
1826 "others. Early cartoons are filled with knockoffs—slight variations on "
1827 "winning themes; retellings of ancient stories. The key to success was the "
1828 "brilliance of the differences. With Disney, it was sound that gave his "
1829 "animation its spark. Later, it was the quality of his work relative to the "
1830 "production-line cartoons with which he competed. Yet these additions were "
1831 "built upon a base that was borrowed. Disney added to the work of others "
1832 "before him, creating something new out of something just barely old."
1835 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1836 #: freeculture.xml:1402
1838 "Sometimes this borrowing was slight. Sometimes it was significant. Think "
1839 "about the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. If you're as oblivious as I "
1840 "was, you're likely to think that these tales are happy, sweet stories, "
1841 "appropriate for any child at bedtime. In fact, the Grimm fairy tales are, "
1842 "well, for us, grim. It is a rare and perhaps overly ambitious parent who "
1843 "would dare to read these bloody, moralistic stories to his or her child, at "
1844 "bedtime or anytime."
1848 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1849 #: freeculture.xml:1411
1851 "Disney took these stories and retold them in a way that carried them into a "
1852 "new age. He animated the stories, with both characters and light. Without "
1853 "removing the elements of fear and danger altogether, he made funny what was "
1854 "dark and injected a genuine emotion of compassion where before there was "
1855 "fear. And not just with the work of the Brothers Grimm. Indeed, the catalog "
1856 "of Disney work drawing upon the work of others is astonishing when set "
1857 "together: <citetitle>Snow White</citetitle> (1937), "
1858 "<citetitle>Fantasia</citetitle> (1940), <citetitle>Pinocchio</citetitle> "
1859 "(1940), <citetitle>Dumbo</citetitle> (1941), <citetitle>Bambi</citetitle> "
1860 "(1942), <citetitle>Song of the South</citetitle> (1946), "
1861 "<citetitle>Cinderella</citetitle> (1950), <citetitle>Alice in "
1862 "Wonderland</citetitle> (1951), <citetitle>Robin Hood</citetitle> (1952), "
1863 "<citetitle>Peter Pan</citetitle> (1953), <citetitle>Lady and the "
1864 "Tramp</citetitle> (1955), <citetitle>Mulan</citetitle> (1998), "
1865 "<citetitle>Sleeping Beauty</citetitle> (1959), <citetitle>101 "
1866 "Dalmatians</citetitle> (1961), <citetitle>The Sword in the Stone</citetitle> "
1867 "(1963), and <citetitle>The Jungle Book</citetitle> (1967)—not to "
1868 "mention a recent example that we should perhaps quickly forget, "
1869 "<citetitle>Treasure Planet</citetitle> (2003). In all of these cases, Disney "
1870 "(or Disney, Inc.) ripped creativity from the culture around him, mixed that "
1871 "creativity with his own extraordinary talent, and then burned that mix into "
1872 "the soul of his culture. Rip, mix, and burn."
1875 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1876 #: freeculture.xml:1434
1878 "This is a kind of creativity. It is a creativity that we should remember and "
1879 "celebrate. There are some who would say that there is no creativity except "
1880 "this kind. We don't need to go that far to recognize its importance. We "
1881 "could call this <quote>Disney creativity,</quote> though that would be a bit "
1882 "misleading. It is, more precisely, <quote>Walt Disney "
1883 "creativity</quote>—a form of expression and genius that builds upon "
1884 "the culture around us and makes it something different."
1888 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1889 #: freeculture.xml:1448
1891 "Until 1976, copyright law granted an author the possibility of two terms: an "
1892 "initial term and a renewal term. I have calculated the "
1893 "<quote>average</quote> term by determining the weighted average of total "
1894 "registrations for any particular year, and the proportion renewing. Thus, if "
1895 "100 copyrights are registered in year 1, and only 15 are renewed, and the "
1896 "renewal term is 28 years, then the average term is 32.2 years. For the "
1897 "renewal data and other relevant data, see the Web site associated with this "
1898 "book, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
1902 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1903 #: freeculture.xml:1442
1905 "In 1928, the culture that Disney was free to draw upon was relatively "
1906 "fresh. The public domain in 1928 was not very old and was therefore quite "
1907 "vibrant. The average term of copyright was just around thirty "
1908 "years—for that minority of creative work that was in fact "
1909 "copyrighted.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> That means that for "
1910 "thirty years, on average, the authors or copyright holders of a creative "
1911 "work had an <quote>exclusive right</quote> to control certain uses of the "
1912 "work. To use this copyrighted work in limited ways required the permission "
1913 "of the copyright owner."
1916 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1917 #: freeculture.xml:1465
1919 "At the end of a copyright term, a work passes into the public domain. No "
1920 "permission is then needed to draw upon or use that work. No permission and, "
1921 "hence, no lawyers. The public domain is a <quote>lawyer-free zone.</quote> "
1922 "Thus, most of the content from the nineteenth century was free for Disney to "
1923 "use and build upon in 1928. It was free for anyone— whether connected "
1924 "or not, whether rich or not, whether approved or not—to use and build "
1929 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1930 #: freeculture.xml:1474
1932 "This is the ways things always were—until quite recently. For most of "
1933 "our history, the public domain was just over the horizon. From until 1978, "
1934 "the average copyright term was never more than thirty-two years, meaning "
1935 "that most culture just a generation and a half old was free for anyone to "
1936 "build upon without the permission of anyone else. Today's equivalent would "
1937 "be for creative work from the 1960s and 1970s to now be free for the next "
1938 "Walt Disney to build upon without permission. Yet today, the public domain "
1939 "is presumptive only for content from before the Great Depression."
1942 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1943 #: freeculture.xml:1487
1945 "<emphasis role=\"strong\">Of course</emphasis>, Walt Disney had no monopoly "
1946 "on <quote>Walt Disney creativity.</quote> Nor does America. The norm of free "
1947 "culture has, until recently, and except within totalitarian nations, been "
1948 "broadly exploited and quite universal."
1951 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1952 #: freeculture.xml:1493
1954 "Consider, for example, a form of creativity that seems strange to many "
1955 "Americans but that is inescapable within Japanese culture: "
1956 "<citetitle>manga</citetitle>, or comics. The Japanese are fanatics about "
1957 "comics. Some 40 percent of publications are comics, and 30 percent of "
1958 "publication revenue derives from comics. They are everywhere in Japanese "
1959 "society, at every magazine stand, carried by a large proportion of commuters "
1960 "on Japan's extraordinary system of public transportation."
1963 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1964 #: freeculture.xml:1502
1966 "Americans tend to look down upon this form of culture. That's an "
1967 "unattractive characteristic of ours. We're likely to misunderstand much "
1968 "about manga, because few of us have ever read anything close to the stories "
1969 "that these <quote>graphic novels</quote> tell. For the Japanese, manga cover "
1970 "every aspect of social life. For us, comics are <quote>men in "
1971 "tights.</quote> And anyway, it's not as if the New York subways are filled "
1972 "with readers of Joyce or even Hemingway. People of different cultures "
1973 "distract themselves in different ways, the Japanese in this interestingly "
1977 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1978 #: freeculture.xml:1513
1980 "But my purpose here is not to understand manga. It is to describe a variant "
1981 "on manga that from a lawyer's perspective is quite odd, but from a Disney "
1982 "perspective is quite familiar."
1986 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1987 #: freeculture.xml:1518
1989 "This is the phenomenon of <citetitle>doujinshi</citetitle>. Doujinshi are "
1990 "also comics, but they are a kind of copycat comic. A rich ethic governs the "
1991 "creation of doujinshi. It is not doujinshi if it is "
1992 "<emphasis>just</emphasis> a copy; the artist must make a contribution to the "
1993 "art he copies, by transforming it either subtly or significantly. A "
1994 "doujinshi comic can thus take a mainstream comic and develop it "
1995 "differently—with a different story line. Or the comic can keep the "
1996 "character in character but change its look slightly. There is no formula for "
1997 "what makes the doujinshi sufficiently <quote>different.</quote> But they "
1998 "must be different if they are to be considered true doujinshi. Indeed, there "
1999 "are committees that review doujinshi for inclusion within shows and reject "
2000 "any copycat comic that is merely a copy."
2003 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2004 #: freeculture.xml:1533
2006 "These copycat comics are not a tiny part of the manga market. They are "
2007 "huge. More than 33,000 <quote>circles</quote> of creators from across Japan "
2008 "produce these bits of Walt Disney creativity. More than 450,000 Japanese "
2009 "come together twice a year, in the largest public gathering in the country, "
2010 "to exchange and sell them. This market exists in parallel to the mainstream "
2011 "commercial manga market. In some ways, it obviously competes with that "
2012 "market, but there is no sustained effort by those who control the commercial "
2013 "manga market to shut the doujinshi market down. It flourishes, despite the "
2014 "competition and despite the law."
2017 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2018 #: freeculture.xml:1544
2020 "The most puzzling feature of the doujinshi market, for those trained in the "
2021 "law, at least, is that it is allowed to exist at all. Under Japanese "
2022 "copyright law, which in this respect (on paper) mirrors American copyright "
2023 "law, the doujinshi market is an illegal one. Doujinshi are plainly "
2024 "<quote>derivative works.</quote> There is no general practice by doujinshi "
2025 "artists of securing the permission of the manga creators. Instead, the "
2026 "practice is simply to take and modify the creations of others, as Walt "
2027 "Disney did with <citetitle>Steamboat Bill, Jr</citetitle>. Under both "
2028 "Japanese and American law, that <quote>taking</quote> without the permission "
2029 "of the original copyright owner is illegal. It is an infringement of the "
2030 "original copyright to make a copy or a derivative work without the original "
2031 "copyright owner's permission."
2034 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2035 #: freeculture.xml:1558
2036 msgid "Winick, Judd"
2040 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2041 #: freeculture.xml:1571
2043 "For an excellent history, see Scott McCloud, <citetitle>Reinventing "
2044 "Comics</citetitle> (New York: Perennial, 2000)."
2047 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2048 #: freeculture.xml:1561
2050 "Yet this illegal market exists and indeed flourishes in Japan, and in the "
2051 "view of many, it is precisely because it exists that Japanese manga "
2052 "flourish. As American graphic novelist Judd Winick said to me, <quote>The "
2053 "early days of comics in America are very much like what's going on in Japan "
2054 "now. … American comics were born out of copying each other. … "
2055 "That's how [the artists] learn to draw—by going into comic books and "
2056 "not tracing them, but looking at them and copying them</quote> and building "
2057 "from them.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
2060 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2061 #: freeculture.xml:1575
2062 msgid "Superman comics"
2065 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2066 #: freeculture.xml:1577
2068 "American comics now are quite different, Winick explains, in part because of "
2069 "the legal difficulty of adapting comics the way doujinshi are "
2070 "allowed. Speaking of Superman, Winick told me, <quote>there are these rules "
2071 "and you have to stick to them.</quote> There are things Superman "
2072 "<quote>cannot</quote> do. <quote>As a creator, it's frustrating having to "
2073 "stick to some parameters which are fifty years old.</quote>"
2077 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2078 #: freeculture.xml:1594
2080 "See Salil K. Mehra, <quote>Copyright and Comics in Japan: Does Law Explain "
2081 "Why All the Comics My Kid Watches Are Japanese Imports?</quote> "
2082 "<citetitle>Rutgers Law Review</citetitle> 55 (2002): 155, "
2083 "182. <quote>[T]here might be a collective economic rationality that would "
2084 "lead manga and anime artists to forgo bringing legal actions for "
2085 "infringement. One hypothesis is that all manga artists may be better off "
2086 "collectively if they set aside their individual self-interest and decide not "
2087 "to press their legal rights. This is essentially a prisoner's dilemma "
2091 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2092 #: freeculture.xml:1586
2094 "The norm in Japan mitigates this legal difficulty. Some say it is precisely "
2095 "the benefit accruing to the Japanese manga market that explains the "
2096 "mitigation. Temple University law professor Salil Mehra, for example, "
2097 "hypothesizes that the manga market accepts these technical violations "
2098 "because they spur the manga market to be more wealthy and "
2099 "productive. Everyone would be worse off if doujinshi were banned, so the law "
2100 "does not ban doujinshi.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
2103 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2104 #: freeculture.xml:1605
2106 "The problem with this story, however, as Mehra plainly acknowledges, is that "
2107 "the mechanism producing this laissez faire response is not clear. It may "
2108 "well be that the market as a whole is better off if doujinshi are permitted "
2109 "rather than banned, but that doesn't explain why individual copyright owners "
2110 "don't sue nonetheless. If the law has no general exception for doujinshi, "
2111 "and indeed in some cases individual manga artists have sued doujinshi "
2112 "artists, why is there not a more general pattern of blocking this "
2113 "<quote>free taking</quote> by the doujinshi culture?"
2116 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2117 #: freeculture.xml:1616
2119 "I spent four wonderful months in Japan, and I asked this question as often "
2120 "as I could. Perhaps the best account in the end was offered by a friend from "
2121 "a major Japanese law firm. <quote>We don't have enough lawyers,</quote> he "
2122 "told me one afternoon. There <quote>just aren't enough resources to "
2123 "prosecute cases like this.</quote>"
2127 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2128 #: freeculture.xml:1623
2130 "This is a theme to which we will return: that regulation by law is a "
2131 "function of both the words on the books and the costs of making those words "
2132 "have effect. For now, focus on the obvious question that is begged: Would "
2133 "Japan be better off with more lawyers? Would manga be richer if doujinshi "
2134 "artists were regularly prosecuted? Would the Japanese gain something "
2135 "important if they could end this practice of uncompensated sharing? Does "
2136 "piracy here hurt the victims of the piracy, or does it help them? Would "
2137 "lawyers fighting this piracy help their clients or hurt them?"
2140 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2141 #: freeculture.xml:1635
2142 msgid "<emphasis role='strong'>Let's pause</emphasis> for a moment."
2145 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2146 #: freeculture.xml:1638
2148 "If you're like I was a decade ago, or like most people are when they first "
2149 "start thinking about these issues, then just about now you should be puzzled "
2150 "about something you hadn't thought through before."
2153 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
2154 #: freeculture.xml:1655 freeculture.xml:2891 freeculture.xml:4564 freeculture.xml:4787 freeculture.xml:7415 freeculture.xml:8544
2155 msgid "Vaidhyanathan, Siva"
2158 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2159 #: freeculture.xml:1648
2161 "The term <citetitle>intellectual property</citetitle> is of relatively "
2162 "recent origin. See Siva Vaidhyanathan, <citetitle>Copyrights and "
2163 "Copywrongs</citetitle>, 11 (New York: New York University Press, 2001). See "
2164 "also Lawrence Lessig, <citetitle>The Future of Ideas</citetitle> (New York: "
2165 "Random House, 2001), 293 n. 26. The term accurately describes a set of "
2166 "<quote>property</quote> rights—copyright, patents, trademark, and "
2167 "trade-secret—but the nature of those rights is very different. "
2168 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
2171 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2172 #: freeculture.xml:1643
2174 "We live in a world that celebrates <quote>property.</quote> I am one of "
2175 "those celebrants. I believe in the value of property in general, and I also "
2176 "believe in the value of that weird form of property that lawyers call "
2177 "<quote>intellectual property.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
2178 "id=\"0\"/> A large, diverse society cannot survive without property; a "
2179 "large, diverse, and modern society cannot flourish without intellectual "
2183 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2184 #: freeculture.xml:1662
2186 "But it takes just a second's reflection to realize that there is plenty of "
2187 "value out there that <quote>property</quote> doesn't capture. I don't mean "
2188 "<quote>money can't buy you love,</quote> but rather, value that is plainly "
2189 "part of a process of production, including commercial as well as "
2190 "noncommercial production. If Disney animators had stolen a set of pencils "
2191 "to draw Steamboat Willie, we'd have no hesitation in condemning that taking "
2192 "as wrong— even though trivial, even if unnoticed. Yet there was "
2193 "nothing wrong, at least under the law of the day, with Disney's taking from "
2194 "Buster Keaton or from the Brothers Grimm. There was nothing wrong with the "
2195 "taking from Keaton because Disney's use would have been considered "
2196 "<quote>fair.</quote> There was nothing wrong with the taking from the Grimms "
2197 "because the Grimms' work was in the public domain."
2201 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2202 #: freeculture.xml:1677
2204 "Thus, even though the things that Disney took—or more generally, the "
2205 "things taken by anyone exercising Walt Disney creativity—are valuable, "
2206 "our tradition does not treat those takings as wrong. Some things remain free "
2207 "for the taking within a free culture, and that freedom is good."
2210 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2211 #: freeculture.xml:1686
2213 "The same with the doujinshi culture. If a doujinshi artist broke into a "
2214 "publisher's office and ran off with a thousand copies of his latest "
2215 "work—or even one copy—without paying, we'd have no hesitation in "
2216 "saying the artist was wrong. In addition to having trespassed, he would have "
2217 "stolen something of value. The law bans that stealing in whatever form, "
2218 "whether large or small."
2221 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2222 #: freeculture.xml:1694
2224 "Yet there is an obvious reluctance, even among Japanese lawyers, to say that "
2225 "the copycat comic artists are <quote>stealing.</quote> This form of Walt "
2226 "Disney creativity is seen as fair and right, even if lawyers in particular "
2227 "find it hard to say why."
2230 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2231 #: freeculture.xml:1700
2233 "It's the same with a thousand examples that appear everywhere once you begin "
2234 "to look. Scientists build upon the work of other scientists without asking "
2235 "or paying for the privilege. (<quote>Excuse me, Professor Einstein, but may "
2236 "I have permission to use your theory of relativity to show that you were "
2237 "wrong about quantum physics?</quote>) Acting companies perform adaptations "
2238 "of the works of Shakespeare without securing permission from anyone. (Does "
2239 "<emphasis>anyone</emphasis> believe Shakespeare would be better spread "
2240 "within our culture if there were a central Shakespeare rights clearinghouse "
2241 "that all productions of Shakespeare must appeal to first?) And Hollywood "
2242 "goes through cycles with a certain kind of movie: five asteroid films in the "
2243 "late 1990s; two volcano disaster films in 1997."
2247 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2248 #: freeculture.xml:1714
2250 "Creators here and everywhere are always and at all times building upon the "
2251 "creativity that went before and that surrounds them now. That building is "
2252 "always and everywhere at least partially done without permission and without "
2253 "compensating the original creator. No society, free or controlled, has ever "
2254 "demanded that every use be paid for or that permission for Walt Disney "
2255 "creativity must always be sought. Instead, every society has left a certain "
2256 "bit of its culture free for the taking—free societies more fully than "
2257 "unfree, perhaps, but all societies to some degree."
2260 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2261 #: freeculture.xml:1725
2263 "The hard question is therefore not <emphasis>whether</emphasis> a culture is "
2264 "free. All cultures are free to some degree. The hard question instead is "
2265 "<quote><emphasis>How</emphasis> free is this culture?</quote> How much, and "
2266 "how broadly, is the culture free for others to take and build upon? Is that "
2267 "freedom limited to party members? To members of the royal family? To the top "
2268 "ten corporations on the New York Stock Exchange? Or is that freedom spread "
2269 "broadly? To artists generally, whether affiliated with the Met or not? To "
2270 "musicians generally, whether white or not? To filmmakers generally, whether "
2271 "affiliated with a studio or not?"
2274 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2275 #: freeculture.xml:1737
2277 "Free cultures are cultures that leave a great deal open for others to build "
2278 "upon; unfree, or permission, cultures leave much less. Ours was a free "
2279 "culture. It is becoming much less so."
2282 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
2283 #: freeculture.xml:1745
2284 msgid "CHAPTER TWO: <quote>Mere Copyists</quote>"
2287 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2288 #: freeculture.xml:1747
2292 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2293 #: freeculture.xml:1749
2294 msgid "Daguerre, Louis"
2297 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2298 #: freeculture.xml:1751
2300 "<emphasis role='strong'>In 1839</emphasis>, Louis Daguerre invented the "
2301 "first practical technology for producing what we would call "
2302 "<quote>photographs.</quote> Appropriately enough, they were called "
2303 "<quote>daguerreotypes.</quote> The process was complicated and expensive, "
2304 "and the field was thus limited to professionals and a few zealous and "
2305 "wealthy amateurs. (There was even an American Daguerre Association that "
2306 "helped regulate the industry, as do all such associations, by keeping "
2307 "competition down so as to keep prices up.)"
2310 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
2311 #: freeculture.xml:1770
2312 msgid "Talbot, William"
2315 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2316 #: freeculture.xml:1761
2318 "Yet despite high prices, the demand for daguerreotypes was strong. This "
2319 "pushed inventors to find simpler and cheaper ways to make <quote>automatic "
2320 "pictures.</quote> William Talbot soon discovered a process for making "
2321 "<quote>negatives.</quote> But because the negatives were glass, and had to "
2322 "be kept wet, the process still remained expensive and cumbersome. In the "
2323 "1870s, dry plates were developed, making it easier to separate the taking of "
2324 "a picture from its developing. These were still plates of glass, and thus it "
2325 "was still not a process within reach of most amateurs. <placeholder "
2326 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
2329 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2330 #: freeculture.xml:1773
2331 msgid "Eastman, George"
2335 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2336 #: freeculture.xml:1776
2338 "The technological change that made mass photography possible didn't happen "
2339 "until 1888, and was the creation of a single man. George Eastman, himself an "
2340 "amateur photographer, was frustrated by the technology of photographs made "
2341 "with plates. In a flash of insight (so to speak), Eastman saw that if the "
2342 "film could be made to be flexible, it could be held on a single "
2343 "spindle. That roll could then be sent to a developer, driving the costs of "
2344 "photography down substantially. By lowering the costs, Eastman expected he "
2345 "could dramatically broaden the population of photographers."
2349 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2350 #: freeculture.xml:1793
2352 "Reese V. Jenkins, <citetitle>Images and Enterprise</citetitle> (Baltimore: "
2353 "Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975), 112."
2356 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
2357 #: freeculture.xml:1795
2358 msgid "Kodak Primer, The (Eastman)"
2361 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2362 #: freeculture.xml:1788
2364 "Eastman developed flexible, emulsion-coated paper film and placed rolls of "
2365 "it in small, simple cameras: the Kodak. The device was marketed on the basis "
2366 "of its simplicity. <quote>You press the button and we do the "
2367 "rest.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> As he described in "
2368 "<citetitle>The Kodak Primer</citetitle>: <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
2372 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2373 #: freeculture.xml:1812 freeculture.xml:1835
2377 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
2378 #: freeculture.xml:1810
2380 "Brian Coe, <citetitle>The Birth of Photography</citetitle> (New York: "
2381 "Taplinger Publishing, 1977), 53. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
2384 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
2385 #: freeculture.xml:1799
2387 "The principle of the Kodak system is the separation of the work that any "
2388 "person whomsoever can do in making a photograph, from the work that only an "
2389 "expert can do. … We furnish anybody, man, woman or child, who has "
2390 "sufficient intelligence to point a box straight and press a button, with an "
2391 "instrument which altogether removes from the practice of photography the "
2392 "necessity for exceptional facilities or, in fact, any special knowledge of "
2393 "the art. It can be employed without preliminary study, without a darkroom "
2394 "and without chemicals.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
2398 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2399 #: freeculture.xml:1828
2400 msgid "Jenkins, 177."
2404 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2405 #: freeculture.xml:1832
2406 msgid "Based on a chart in Jenkins, p. 178."
2409 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2410 #: freeculture.xml:1817
2412 "For $25, anyone could make pictures. The camera came preloaded with film, "
2413 "and when it had been used, the camera was returned to an Eastman factory, "
2414 "where the film was developed. Over time, of course, the cost of the camera "
2415 "and the ease with which it could be used both improved. Roll film thus "
2416 "became the basis for the explosive growth of popular photography. Eastman's "
2417 "camera first went on sale in 1888; one year later, Kodak was printing more "
2418 "than six thousand negatives a day. From 1888 through 1909, while industrial "
2419 "production was rising by 4.7 percent, photographic equipment and material "
2420 "sales increased by 11 percent.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
2421 "Eastman Kodak's sales during the same period experienced an average annual "
2422 "increase of over 17 percent.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
2426 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2427 #: freeculture.xml:1850
2431 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2432 #: freeculture.xml:1839
2434 "The real significance of Eastman's invention, however, was not economic. It "
2435 "was social. Professional photography gave individuals a glimpse of places "
2436 "they would never otherwise see. Amateur photography gave them the ability to "
2437 "record their own lives in a way they had never been able to do before. As "
2438 "author Brian Coe notes, <quote>For the first time the snapshot album "
2439 "provided the man on the street with a permanent record of his family and its "
2440 "activities. … For the first time in history there exists an authentic "
2441 "visual record of the appearance and activities of the common man made "
2442 "without [literary] interpretation or bias.</quote><placeholder "
2443 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
2446 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2447 #: freeculture.xml:1854
2449 "In this way, the Kodak camera and film were technologies of expression. The "
2450 "pencil or paintbrush was also a technology of expression, of course. But it "
2451 "took years of training before they could be deployed by amateurs in any "
2452 "useful or effective way. With the Kodak, expression was possible much sooner "
2453 "and more simply. The barrier to expression was lowered. Snobs would sneer at "
2454 "its <quote>quality</quote>; professionals would discount it as "
2455 "irrelevant. But watch a child study how best to frame a picture and you get "
2456 "a sense of the experience of creativity that the Kodak enabled. Democratic "
2457 "tools gave ordinary people a way to express themselves more easily than any "
2458 "tools could have before."
2462 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2463 #: freeculture.xml:1876
2465 "For illustrative cases, see, for example, <citetitle>Pavesich</citetitle> "
2466 "v. <citetitle>N.E. Life Ins. Co</citetitle>., 50 S.E. 68 (Ga. 1905); "
2467 "<citetitle>Foster-Milburn Co</citetitle>. v. <citetitle>Chinn</citetitle>, "
2468 "123090 S.W. 364, 366 (Ky. 1909); <citetitle>Corliss</citetitle> "
2469 "v. <citetitle>Walker</citetitle>, 64 F. 280 (Mass. Dist. Ct. 1894)."
2472 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2473 #: freeculture.xml:1867
2475 "What was required for this technology to flourish? Obviously, Eastman's "
2476 "genius was an important part. But also important was the legal environment "
2477 "within which Eastman's invention grew. For early in the history of "
2478 "photography, there was a series of judicial decisions that could well have "
2479 "changed the course of photography substantially. Courts were asked whether "
2480 "the photographer, amateur or professional, required permission before he "
2481 "could capture and print whatever image he wanted. Their answer was "
2482 "no.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
2486 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2487 #: freeculture.xml:1884
2489 "The arguments in favor of requiring permission will sound surprisingly "
2490 "familiar. The photographer was <quote>taking</quote> something from the "
2491 "person or building whose photograph he shot—pirating something of "
2492 "value. Some even thought he was taking the target's soul. Just as Disney was "
2493 "not free to take the pencils that his animators used to draw Mickey, so, "
2494 "too, should these photographers not be free to take images that they thought "
2498 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
2499 #: freeculture.xml:1906
2500 msgid "Warren, Samuel D."
2503 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2504 #: freeculture.xml:1903
2506 "Samuel D. Warren and Louis D. Brandeis, <quote>The Right to Privacy,</quote> "
2507 "<citetitle>Harvard Law Review</citetitle> 4 (1890): 193. <placeholder "
2508 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
2511 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2512 #: freeculture.xml:1896
2514 "On the other side was an argument that should be familiar, as well. Sure, "
2515 "there may be something of value being used. But citizens should have the "
2516 "right to capture at least those images that stand in public view. (Louis "
2517 "Brandeis, who would become a Supreme Court Justice, thought the rule should "
2518 "be different for images from private spaces.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
2519 "id=\"0\"/>) It may be that this means that the photographer gets something "
2520 "for nothing. Just as Disney could take inspiration from <citetitle>Steamboat "
2521 "Bill, Jr</citetitle>. or the Brothers Grimm, the photographer should be free "
2522 "to capture an image without compensating the source."
2525 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
2526 #: freeculture.xml:1912 freeculture.xml:9238
2527 msgid "images, ownership of"
2531 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2532 #: freeculture.xml:1924
2534 "See Melville B. Nimmer, <quote>The Right of Publicity,</quote> "
2535 "<citetitle>Law and Contemporary Problems</citetitle> 19 (1954): 203; William "
2536 "L. Prosser, <quote>Privacy,</quote> <citetitle>California Law "
2537 "Review</citetitle> 48 (1960) 398–407; <citetitle>White</citetitle> "
2538 "v. <citetitle>Samsung Electronics America, Inc</citetitle>., 971 F. 2d 1395 "
2539 "(9th Cir. 1992), cert. denied, 508 U.S. 951 (1993)."
2542 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2543 #: freeculture.xml:1914
2545 "Fortunately for Mr. Eastman, and for photography in general, these early "
2546 "decisions went in favor of the pirates. In general, no permission would be "
2547 "required before an image could be captured and shared with others. Instead, "
2548 "permission was presumed. Freedom was the default. (The law would eventually "
2549 "craft an exception for famous people: commercial photographers who snap "
2550 "pictures of famous people for commercial purposes have more restrictions "
2551 "than the rest of us. But in the ordinary case, the image can be captured "
2552 "without clearing the rights to do the capturing.<placeholder "
2553 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>)"
2556 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2557 #: freeculture.xml:1932
2559 "We can only speculate about how photography would have developed had the law "
2560 "gone the other way. If the presumption had been against the photographer, "
2561 "then the photographer would have had to demonstrate permission. Perhaps "
2562 "Eastman Kodak would have had to demonstrate permission, too, before it "
2563 "developed the film upon which images were captured. After all, if permission "
2564 "were not granted, then Eastman Kodak would be benefiting from the "
2565 "<quote>theft</quote> committed by the photographer. Just as Napster "
2566 "benefited from the copyright infringements committed by Napster users, Kodak "
2567 "would be benefiting from the <quote>image-right</quote> infringement of its "
2568 "photographers. We could imagine the law then requiring that some form of "
2569 "permission be demonstrated before a company developed pictures. We could "
2570 "imagine a system developing to demonstrate that permission."
2574 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2575 #: freeculture.xml:1949
2577 "But though we could imagine this system of permission, it would be very hard "
2578 "to see how photography could have flourished as it did if the requirement "
2579 "for permission had been built into the rules that govern it. Photography "
2580 "would have existed. It would have grown in importance over "
2581 "time. Professionals would have continued to use the technology as they "
2582 "did—since professionals could have more easily borne the burdens of "
2583 "the permission system. But the spread of photography to ordinary people "
2584 "would not have occurred. Nothing like that growth would have been "
2585 "realized. And certainly, nothing like that growth in a democratic technology "
2586 "of expression would have been realized."
2589 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2590 #: freeculture.xml:1962
2592 "<emphasis role='strong'>If you drive</emphasis> through San Francisco's "
2593 "Presidio, you might see two gaudy yellow school buses painted over with "
2594 "colorful and striking images, and the logo <quote>Just Think!</quote> in "
2595 "place of the name of a school. But there's little that's <quote>just</quote> "
2596 "cerebral in the projects that these busses enable. These buses are filled "
2597 "with technologies that teach kids to tinker with film. Not the film of "
2598 "Eastman. Not even the film of your VCR. Rather the <quote>film</quote> of "
2599 "digital cameras. Just Think! is a project that enables kids to make films, "
2600 "as a way to understand and critique the filmed culture that they find all "
2601 "around them. Each year, these busses travel to more than thirty schools and "
2602 "enable three hundred to five hundred children to learn something about media "
2603 "by doing something with media. By doing, they think. By tinkering, they "
2608 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2609 #: freeculture.xml:1986
2611 "H. Edward Goldberg, <quote>Essential Presentation Tools: Hardware and "
2612 "Software You Need to Create Digital Multimedia Presentations,</quote> "
2613 "cadalyst, February 2002, available at <ulink "
2614 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #7</ulink>."
2617 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2618 #: freeculture.xml:1980
2620 "These buses are not cheap, but the technology they carry is increasingly "
2621 "so. The cost of a high-quality digital video system has fallen "
2622 "dramatically. As one analyst puts it, <quote>Five years ago, a good "
2623 "real-time digital video editing system cost $25,000. Today you can get "
2624 "professional quality for $595.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
2625 "id=\"0\"/> These buses are filled with technology that would have cost "
2626 "hundreds of thousands just ten years ago. And it is now feasible to imagine "
2627 "not just buses like this, but classrooms across the country where kids are "
2628 "learning more and more of something teachers call <quote>media "
2632 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
2633 #: freeculture.xml:2003
2634 msgid "Yanofsky, Dave"
2637 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2638 #: freeculture.xml:1998
2640 "<quote>Media literacy,</quote> as Dave Yanofsky, the executive director of "
2641 "Just Think!, puts it, <quote>is the ability … to understand, analyze, "
2642 "and deconstruct media images. Its aim is to make [kids] literate about the "
2643 "way media works, the way it's constructed, the way it's delivered, and the "
2644 "way people access it.</quote> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
2647 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2648 #: freeculture.xml:2006
2650 "This may seem like an odd way to think about <quote>literacy.</quote> For "
2651 "most people, literacy is about reading and writing. Faulkner and Hemingway "
2652 "and noticing split infinitives are the things that <quote>literate</quote> "
2653 "people know about."
2656 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
2657 #: freeculture.xml:2011 freeculture.xml:2517 freeculture.xml:6437 freeculture.xml:7279 freeculture.xml:8375 freeculture.xml:8447
2662 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2663 #: freeculture.xml:2017
2665 "Judith Van Evra, <citetitle>Television and Child Development</citetitle> "
2666 "(Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1990); <quote>Findings on "
2667 "Family and TV Study,</quote> <citetitle>Denver Post</citetitle>, 25 May "
2671 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2672 #: freeculture.xml:2013
2674 "Maybe. But in a world where children see on average 390 hours of television "
2675 "commercials per year, or between 20,000 and 45,000 commercials "
2676 "generally,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> it is increasingly "
2677 "important to understand the <quote>grammar</quote> of media. For just as "
2678 "there is a grammar for the written word, so, too, is there one for "
2679 "media. And just as kids learn how to write by writing lots of terrible "
2680 "prose, kids learn how to write media by constructing lots of (at least at "
2681 "first) terrible media."
2684 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2685 #: freeculture.xml:2028
2687 "A growing field of academics and activists sees this form of literacy as "
2688 "crucial to the next generation of culture. For though anyone who has written "
2689 "understands how difficult writing is—how difficult it is to sequence "
2690 "the story, to keep a reader's attention, to craft language to be "
2691 "understandable—few of us have any real sense of how difficult media "
2692 "is. Or more fundamentally, few of us have a sense of how media works, how it "
2693 "holds an audience or leads it through a story, how it triggers emotion or "
2697 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2698 #: freeculture.xml:2038
2700 "It took filmmaking a generation before it could do these things well. But "
2701 "even then, the knowledge was in the filming, not in writing about the "
2702 "film. The skill came from experiencing the making of a film, not from "
2703 "reading a book about it. One learns to write by writing and then reflecting "
2704 "upon what one has written. One learns to write with images by making them "
2705 "and then reflecting upon what one has created."
2708 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2709 #: freeculture.xml:2045
2710 msgid "Crichton, Michael"
2713 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2714 #: freeculture.xml:2059 freeculture.xml:2119 freeculture.xml:2126 freeculture.xml:2581
2715 msgid "Barish, Stephanie"
2718 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
2719 #: freeculture.xml:2060
2720 msgid "Daley, Elizabeth"
2723 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2724 #: freeculture.xml:2057
2726 "Interview with Elizabeth Daley and Stephanie Barish, 13 December 2002. "
2727 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
2732 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2733 #: freeculture.xml:2071
2735 "See Scott Steinberg, <quote>Crichton Gets Medieval on PCs,</quote> E!online, "
2736 "4 November 2000, available at <ulink "
2737 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #8</ulink>; "
2738 "<quote>Timeline,</quote> 22 November 2000, available at <ulink "
2739 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #9</ulink>."
2742 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2743 #: freeculture.xml:2047
2745 "This grammar has changed as media has changed. When it was just film, as "
2746 "Elizabeth Daley, executive director of the University of Southern "
2747 "California's Annenberg Center for Communication and dean of the USC School "
2748 "of Cinema-Television, explained to me, the grammar was about <quote>the "
2749 "placement of objects, color, … rhythm, pacing, and "
2750 "texture.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> But as computers "
2751 "open up an interactive space where a story is <quote>played</quote> as well "
2752 "as experienced, that grammar changes. The simple control of narrative is "
2753 "lost, and so other techniques are necessary. Author Michael Crichton had "
2754 "mastered the narrative of science fiction. But when he tried to design a "
2755 "computer game based on one of his works, it was a new craft he had to "
2756 "learn. How to lead people through a game without their feeling they have "
2757 "been led was not obvious, even to a wildly successful author.<placeholder "
2758 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
2761 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2762 #: freeculture.xml:2078
2763 msgid "computer games"
2766 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2767 #: freeculture.xml:2080
2769 "This skill is precisely the craft a filmmaker learns. As Daley describes, "
2770 "<quote>people are very surprised about how they are led through a film. [I]t "
2771 "is perfectly constructed to keep you from seeing it, so you have no idea. If "
2772 "a filmmaker succeeds you do not know how you were led.</quote> If you know "
2773 "you were led through a film, the film has failed."
2776 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2777 #: freeculture.xml:2087
2779 "Yet the push for an expanded literacy—one that goes beyond text to "
2780 "include audio and visual elements—is not about making better film "
2781 "directors. The aim is not to improve the profession of filmmaking at all. "
2782 "Instead, as Daley explained,"
2785 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
2786 #: freeculture.xml:2094
2788 "From my perspective, probably the most important digital divide is not "
2789 "access to a box. It's the ability to be empowered with the language that "
2790 "that box works in. Otherwise only a very few people can write with this "
2791 "language, and all the rest of us are reduced to being read-only."
2794 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2795 #: freeculture.xml:2102
2797 "<quote>Read-only.</quote> Passive recipients of culture produced elsewhere. "
2798 "Couch potatoes. Consumers. This is the world of media from the twentieth "
2802 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2803 #: freeculture.xml:2118
2804 msgid "Interview with Daley and Barish. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
2808 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
2809 #: freeculture.xml:2123 freeculture.xml:3908 freeculture.xml:4976 freeculture.xml:8263
2813 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2814 #: freeculture.xml:2107
2816 "The twenty-first century could be different. This is the crucial point: It "
2817 "could be both read and write. Or at least reading and better understanding "
2818 "the craft of writing. Or best, reading and understanding the tools that "
2819 "enable the writing to lead or mislead. The aim of any literacy, and this "
2820 "literacy in particular, is to <quote>empower people to choose the "
2821 "appropriate language for what they need to create or "
2822 "express.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> It is to enable "
2823 "students <quote>to communicate in the language of the twenty-first "
2824 "century.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
2827 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2828 #: freeculture.xml:2128
2830 "As with any language, this language comes more easily to some than to "
2831 "others. It doesn't necessarily come more easily to those who excel in "
2832 "written language. Daley and Stephanie Barish, director of the Institute for "
2833 "Multimedia Literacy at the Annenberg Center, describe one particularly "
2834 "poignant example of a project they ran in a high school. The high school "
2835 "was a very poor inner-city Los Angeles school. In all the traditional "
2836 "measures of success, this school was a failure. But Daley and Barish ran a "
2837 "program that gave kids an opportunity to use film to express meaning about "
2838 "something the students know something about—gun violence."
2841 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2842 #: freeculture.xml:2140
2844 "The class was held on Friday afternoons, and it created a relatively new "
2845 "problem for the school. While the challenge in most classes was getting the "
2846 "kids to come, the challenge in this class was keeping them away. The "
2847 "<quote>kids were showing up at 6 A.M. and leaving at 5 at night,</quote> "
2848 "said Barish. They were working harder than in any other class to do what "
2849 "education should be about—learning how to express themselves."
2852 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2853 #: freeculture.xml:2148
2855 "Using whatever <quote>free web stuff they could find,</quote> and relatively "
2856 "simple tools to enable the kids to mix <quote>image, sound, and "
2857 "text,</quote> Barish said this class produced a series of projects that "
2858 "showed something about gun violence that few would otherwise "
2859 "understand. This was an issue close to the lives of these students. The "
2860 "project <quote>gave them a tool and empowered them to be able to both "
2861 "understand it and talk about it,</quote> Barish explained. That tool "
2862 "succeeded in creating expression—far more successfully and powerfully "
2863 "than could have been created using only text. <quote>If you had said to "
2864 "these students, `you have to do it in text,' they would've just thrown their "
2865 "hands up and gone and done something else,</quote> Barish described, in "
2866 "part, no doubt, because expressing themselves in text is not something these "
2867 "students can do well. Yet neither is text a form in which "
2868 "<emphasis>these</emphasis> ideas can be expressed well. The power of this "
2869 "message depended upon its connection to this form of expression."
2873 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2874 #: freeculture.xml:2167
2876 "<quote>But isn't education about teaching kids to write?</quote> I asked. In "
2877 "part, of course, it is. But why are we teaching kids to write? Education, "
2878 "Daley explained, is about giving students a way of <quote>constructing "
2879 "meaning.</quote> To say that that means just writing is like saying teaching "
2880 "writing is only about teaching kids how to spell. Text is one part—and "
2881 "increasingly, not the most powerful part—of constructing meaning. As "
2882 "Daley explained in the most moving part of our interview,"
2885 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
2886 #: freeculture.xml:2178
2888 "What you want is to give these students ways of constructing meaning. If all "
2889 "you give them is text, they're not going to do it. Because they can't. You "
2890 "know, you've got Johnny who can look at a video, he can play a video game, "
2891 "he can do graffiti all over your walls, he can take your car apart, and he "
2892 "can do all sorts of other things. He just can't read your text. So Johnny "
2893 "comes to school and you say, <quote>Johnny, you're illiterate. Nothing you "
2894 "can do matters.</quote> Well, Johnny then has two choices: He can dismiss "
2895 "you or he [can] dismiss himself. If his ego is healthy at all, he's going to "
2896 "dismiss you. [But i]nstead, if you say, <quote>Well, with all these things "
2897 "that you can do, let's talk about this issue. Play for me music that you "
2898 "think reflects that, or show me images that you think reflect that, or draw "
2899 "for me something that reflects that.</quote> Not by giving a kid a video "
2900 "camera and … saying, <quote>Let's go have fun with the video camera "
2901 "and make a little movie.</quote> But instead, really help you take these "
2902 "elements that you understand, that are your language, and construct meaning "
2903 "about the topic.…"
2906 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
2907 #: freeculture.xml:2197
2909 "That empowers enormously. And then what happens, of course, is eventually, "
2910 "as it has happened in all these classes, they bump up against the fact, "
2911 "<quote>I need to explain this and I really need to write something.</quote> "
2912 "And as one of the teachers told Stephanie, they would rewrite a paragraph 5, "
2913 "6, 7, 8 times, till they got it right."
2917 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
2918 #: freeculture.xml:2204
2920 "Because they needed to. There was a reason for doing it. They needed to say "
2921 "something, as opposed to just jumping through your hoops. They actually "
2922 "needed to use a language that they didn't speak very well. But they had come "
2923 "to understand that they had a lot of power with this language."
2926 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2927 #: freeculture.xml:2214
2928 msgid "World Trade Center"
2931 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2932 #: freeculture.xml:2216
2934 "<emphasis role='strong'>When two planes</emphasis> crashed into the World "
2935 "Trade Center, another into the Pentagon, and a fourth into a Pennsylvania "
2936 "field, all media around the world shifted to this news. Every moment of just "
2937 "about every day for that week, and for weeks after, television in "
2938 "particular, and media generally, retold the story of the events we had just "
2939 "witnessed. The telling was a retelling, because we had seen the events that "
2940 "were described. The genius of this awful act of terrorism was that the "
2941 "delayed second attack was perfectly timed to assure that the whole world "
2942 "would be watching."
2945 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2946 #: freeculture.xml:2228
2948 "These retellings had an increasingly familiar feel. There was music scored "
2949 "for the intermissions, and fancy graphics that flashed across the "
2950 "screen. There was a formula to interviews. There was <quote>balance,</quote> "
2951 "and seriousness. This was news choreographed in the way we have increasingly "
2952 "come to expect it, <quote>news as entertainment,</quote> even if the "
2953 "entertainment is tragedy."
2956 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
2957 #: freeculture.xml:2235 freeculture.xml:8202 freeculture.xml:8441
2961 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2962 #: freeculture.xml:2236
2966 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2967 #: freeculture.xml:2238
2969 "But in addition to this produced news about the <quote>tragedy of September "
2970 "11,</quote> those of us tied to the Internet came to see a very different "
2971 "production as well. The Internet was filled with accounts of the same "
2972 "events. Yet these Internet accounts had a very different flavor. Some people "
2973 "constructed photo pages that captured images from around the world and "
2974 "presented them as slide shows with text. Some offered open letters. There "
2975 "were sound recordings. There was anger and frustration. There were attempts "
2976 "to provide context. There was, in short, an extraordinary worldwide barn "
2977 "raising, in the sense Mike Godwin uses the term in his book <citetitle>Cyber "
2978 "Rights</citetitle>, around a news event that had captured the attention of "
2979 "the world. There was ABC and CBS, but there was also the Internet."
2983 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2984 #: freeculture.xml:2252
2986 "I don't mean simply to praise the Internet—though I do think the "
2987 "people who supported this form of speech should be praised. I mean instead "
2988 "to point to a significance in this form of speech. For like a Kodak, the "
2989 "Internet enables people to capture images. And like in a movie by a student "
2990 "on the <quote>Just Think!</quote> bus, the visual images could be mixed with "
2994 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2995 #: freeculture.xml:2262
2997 "But unlike any technology for simply capturing images, the Internet allows "
2998 "these creations to be shared with an extraordinary number of people, "
2999 "practically instantaneously. This is something new in our "
3000 "tradition—not just that culture can be captured mechanically, and "
3001 "obviously not just that events are commented upon critically, but that this "
3002 "mix of captured images, sound, and commentary can be widely spread "
3003 "practically instantaneously."
3006 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3007 #: freeculture.xml:2271
3009 "September 11 was not an aberration. It was a beginning. Around the same "
3010 "time, a form of communication that has grown dramatically was just beginning "
3011 "to come into public consciousness: the Web-log, or blog. The blog is a kind "
3012 "of public diary, and within some cultures, such as in Japan, it functions "
3013 "very much like a diary. In those cultures, it records private facts in a "
3014 "public way—it's a kind of electronic <citetitle>Jerry "
3015 "Springer</citetitle>, available anywhere in the world."
3018 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
3019 #: freeculture.xml:2279 freeculture.xml:2352 freeculture.xml:2477
3020 msgid "blogs (Web-logs)"
3023 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3024 #: freeculture.xml:2281
3026 "But in the United States, blogs have taken on a very different character. "
3027 "There are some who use the space simply to talk about their private "
3028 "life. But there are many who use the space to engage in public "
3029 "discourse. Discussing matters of public import, criticizing others who are "
3030 "mistaken in their views, criticizing politicians about the decisions they "
3031 "make, offering solutions to problems we all see: blogs create the sense of a "
3032 "virtual public meeting, but one in which we don't all hope to be there at "
3033 "the same time and in which conversations are not necessarily linked. The "
3034 "best of the blog entries are relatively short; they point directly to words "
3035 "used by others, criticizing with or adding to them. They are arguably the "
3036 "most important form of unchoreographed public discourse that we have."
3040 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3041 #: freeculture.xml:2295
3043 "That's a strong statement. Yet it says as much about our democracy as it "
3044 "does about blogs. This is the part of America that is most difficult for "
3045 "those of us who love America to accept: Our democracy has atrophied. Of "
3046 "course we have elections, and most of the time the courts allow those "
3047 "elections to count. A relatively small number of people vote in those "
3048 "elections. The cycle of these elections has become totally professionalized "
3049 "and routinized. Most of us think this is democracy."
3052 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3053 #: freeculture.xml:2305
3054 msgid "Tocqueville, Alexis de"
3058 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3059 #: freeculture.xml:2322
3061 "See, for example, Alexis de Tocqueville, <citetitle>Democracy in "
3062 "America</citetitle>, bk. 1, trans. Henry Reeve (New York: Bantam Books, "
3066 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3067 #: freeculture.xml:2307
3069 "But democracy has never just been about elections. Democracy means rule by "
3070 "the people, but rule means something more than mere elections. In our "
3071 "tradition, it also means control through reasoned discourse. This was the "
3072 "idea that captured the imagination of Alexis de Tocqueville, the "
3073 "nineteenth-century French lawyer who wrote the most important account of "
3074 "early <quote>Democracy in America.</quote> It wasn't popular elections that "
3075 "fascinated him—it was the jury, an institution that gave ordinary "
3076 "people the right to choose life or death for other citizens. And most "
3077 "fascinating for him was that the jury didn't just vote about the outcome "
3078 "they would impose. They deliberated. Members argued about the "
3079 "<quote>right</quote> result; they tried to persuade each other of the "
3080 "<quote>right</quote> result, and in criminal cases at least, they had to "
3081 "agree upon a unanimous result for the process to come to an end.<placeholder "
3082 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
3086 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3087 #: freeculture.xml:2331
3089 "Bruce Ackerman and James Fishkin, <quote>Deliberation Day,</quote> "
3090 "<citetitle>Journal of Political Philosophy</citetitle> 10 (2) (2002): 129."
3093 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3094 #: freeculture.xml:2327
3096 "Yet even this institution flags in American life today. And in its place, "
3097 "there is no systematic effort to enable citizen deliberation. Some are "
3098 "pushing to create just such an institution.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
3099 "id=\"0\"/> And in some towns in New England, something close to deliberation "
3100 "remains. But for most of us for most of the time, there is no time or place "
3101 "for <quote>democratic deliberation</quote> to occur."
3105 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3106 #: freeculture.xml:2346
3108 "Cass Sunstein, <citetitle>Republic.com</citetitle> (Princeton: Princeton "
3109 "University Press, 2001), 65–80, 175, 182, 183, 192."
3112 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3113 #: freeculture.xml:2339
3115 "More bizarrely, there is generally not even permission for it to occur. We, "
3116 "the most powerful democracy in the world, have developed a strong norm "
3117 "against talking about politics. It's fine to talk about politics with people "
3118 "you agree with. But it is rude to argue about politics with people you "
3119 "disagree with. Political discourse becomes isolated, and isolated discourse "
3120 "becomes more extreme.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> We say what "
3121 "our friends want to hear, and hear very little beyond what our friends say."
3125 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3126 #: freeculture.xml:2355
3128 "Enter the blog. The blog's very architecture solves one part of this "
3129 "problem. People post when they want to post, and people read when they want "
3130 "to read. The most difficult time is synchronous time. Technologies that "
3131 "enable asynchronous communication, such as e-mail, increase the opportunity "
3132 "for communication. Blogs allow for public discourse without the public ever "
3133 "needing to gather in a single public place."
3136 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3137 #: freeculture.xml:2366
3139 "But beyond architecture, blogs also have solved the problem of "
3140 "norms. There's no norm (yet) in blog space not to talk about politics. "
3141 "Indeed, the space is filled with political speech, on both the right and the "
3142 "left. Some of the most popular sites are conservative or libertarian, but "
3143 "there are many of all political stripes. And even blogs that are not "
3144 "political cover political issues when the occasion merits."
3147 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
3148 #: freeculture.xml:2378
3149 msgid "Dean, Howard"
3152 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3153 #: freeculture.xml:2374
3155 "The significance of these blogs is tiny now, though not so tiny. The name "
3156 "Howard Dean may well have faded from the 2004 presidential race but for "
3157 "blogs. Yet even if the number of readers is small, the reading is having an "
3158 "effect. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
3161 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3162 #: freeculture.xml:2380
3163 msgid "Thurmond, Strom"
3167 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3168 #: freeculture.xml:2393
3170 "Noah Shachtman, <quote>With Incessant Postings, a Pundit Stirs the "
3171 "Pot,</quote> New York Times, 16 January 2003, G5."
3174 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
3175 #: freeculture.xml:2396
3179 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3180 #: freeculture.xml:2382
3182 "One direct effect is on stories that had a different life cycle in the "
3183 "mainstream media. The Trent Lott affair is an example. When Lott "
3184 "<quote>misspoke</quote> at a party for Senator Strom Thurmond, essentially "
3185 "praising Thurmond's segregationist policies, he calculated correctly that "
3186 "this story would disappear from the mainstream press within forty-eight "
3187 "hours. It did. But he didn't calculate its life cycle in blog space. The "
3188 "bloggers kept researching the story. Over time, more and more instances of "
3189 "the same <quote>misspeaking</quote> emerged. Finally, the story broke back "
3190 "into the mainstream press. In the end, Lott was forced to resign as senate "
3191 "majority leader.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
3192 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
3195 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3196 #: freeculture.xml:2399
3198 "This different cycle is possible because the same commercial pressures don't "
3199 "exist with blogs as with other ventures. Television and newspapers are "
3200 "commercial entities. They must work to keep attention. If they lose "
3201 "readers, they lose revenue. Like sharks, they must move on."
3204 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3205 #: freeculture.xml:2406
3207 "But bloggers don't have a similar constraint. They can obsess, they can "
3208 "focus, they can get serious. If a particular blogger writes a particularly "
3209 "interesting story, more and more people link to that story. And as the "
3210 "number of links to a particular story increases, it rises in the ranks of "
3211 "stories. People read what is popular; what is popular has been selected by a "
3212 "very democratic process of peer-generated rankings."
3215 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3216 #: freeculture.xml:2415
3221 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3222 #: freeculture.xml:2418
3224 "There's a second way, as well, in which blogs have a different cycle from "
3225 "the mainstream press. As Dave Winer, one of the fathers of this movement and "
3226 "a software author for many decades, told me, another difference is the "
3227 "absence of a financial <quote>conflict of interest.</quote> <quote>I think "
3228 "you have to take the conflict of interest</quote> out of journalism, Winer "
3229 "told me. <quote>An amateur journalist simply doesn't have a conflict of "
3230 "interest, or the conflict of interest is so easily disclosed that you know "
3231 "you can sort of get it out of the way.</quote>"
3234 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
3235 #: freeculture.xml:2428 freeculture.xml:2474
3239 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
3240 #: freeculture.xml:2429 freeculture.xml:2475 freeculture.xml:5630
3245 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3246 #: freeculture.xml:2437
3247 msgid "Telephone interview with David Winer, 16 April 2003."
3250 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3251 #: freeculture.xml:2431
3253 "These conflicts become more important as media becomes more concentrated "
3254 "(more on this below). A concentrated media can hide more from the public "
3255 "than an unconcentrated media can—as CNN admitted it did after the Iraq "
3256 "war because it was afraid of the consequences to its own "
3257 "employees.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> It also needs to sustain "
3258 "a more coherent account. (In the middle of the Iraq war, I read a post on "
3259 "the Internet from someone who was at that time listening to a satellite "
3260 "uplink with a reporter in Iraq. The New York headquarters was telling the "
3261 "reporter over and over that her account of the war was too bleak: She needed "
3262 "to offer a more optimistic story. When she told New York that wasn't "
3263 "warranted, they told her that <emphasis>they</emphasis> were writing "
3264 "<quote>the story.</quote>)"
3268 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3269 #: freeculture.xml:2455
3271 "John Schwartz, <quote>Loss of the Shuttle: The Internet; A Wealth of "
3272 "Information Online,</quote> <citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 2 "
3273 "February 2003, A28; Staci D. Kramer, <quote>Shuttle Disaster Coverage Mixed, "
3274 "but Strong Overall,</quote> Online Journalism Review, 2 February 2003, "
3275 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #10</ulink>."
3278 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3279 #: freeculture.xml:2447
3281 "Blog space gives amateurs a way to enter the "
3282 "debate—<quote>amateur</quote> not in the sense of inexperienced, but "
3283 "in the sense of an Olympic athlete, meaning not paid by anyone to give their "
3284 "reports. It allows for a much broader range of input into a story, as "
3285 "reporting on the Columbia disaster revealed, when hundreds from across the "
3286 "southwest United States turned to the Internet to retell what they had "
3287 "seen.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> And it drives readers to read "
3288 "across the range of accounts and <quote>triangulate,</quote> as Winer puts "
3289 "it, the truth. Blogs, Winer says, are <quote>communicating directly with our "
3290 "constituency, and the middle man is out of it</quote>—with all the "
3291 "benefits, and costs, that might entail."
3294 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
3295 #: freeculture.xml:2476
3296 msgid "Olafson, Steve"
3299 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3300 #: freeculture.xml:2474
3302 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
3303 "id=\"1\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder "
3304 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/> See Michael Falcone, <quote>Does an Editor's "
3305 "Pencil Ruin a Web Log?</quote> <citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 29 "
3306 "September 2003, C4. (<quote>Not all news organizations have been as "
3307 "accepting of employees who blog. Kevin Sites, a CNN correspondent in Iraq "
3308 "who started a blog about his reporting of the war on March 9, stopped "
3309 "posting 12 days later at his bosses' request. Last year Steve Olafson, a "
3310 "<citetitle>Houston Chronicle</citetitle> reporter, was fired for keeping a "
3311 "personal Web log, published under a pseudonym, that dealt with some of the "
3312 "issues and people he was covering.</quote>)"
3316 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3317 #: freeculture.xml:2467
3319 "Winer is optimistic about the future of journalism infected with "
3320 "blogs. <quote>It's going to become an essential skill,</quote> Winer "
3321 "predicts, for public figures and increasingly for private figures as "
3322 "well. It's not clear that <quote>journalism</quote> is happy about "
3323 "this—some journalists have been told to curtail their "
3324 "blogging.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> But it is clear that we "
3325 "are still in transition. <quote>A lot of what we are doing now is warm-up "
3326 "exercises,</quote> Winer told me. There is a lot that must mature before "
3327 "this space has its mature effect. And as the inclusion of content in this "
3328 "space is the least infringing use of the Internet (meaning infringing on "
3329 "copyright), Winer said, <quote>we will be the last thing that gets shut "
3333 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3334 #: freeculture.xml:2497
3336 "This speech affects democracy. Winer thinks that happens because <quote>you "
3337 "don't have to work for somebody who controls, [for] a gatekeeper.</quote> "
3338 "That is true. But it affects democracy in another way as well. As more and "
3339 "more citizens express what they think, and defend it in writing, that will "
3340 "change the way people understand public issues. It is easy to be wrong and "
3341 "misguided in your head. It is harder when the product of your mind can be "
3342 "criticized by others. Of course, it is a rare human who admits that he has "
3343 "been persuaded that he is wrong. But it is even rarer for a human to ignore "
3344 "when he has been proven wrong. The writing of ideas, arguments, and "
3345 "criticism improves democracy. Today there are probably a couple of million "
3346 "blogs where such writing happens. When there are ten million, there will be "
3347 "something extraordinary to report."
3350 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3351 #: freeculture.xml:2514
3352 msgid "Brown, John Seely"
3355 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3356 #: freeculture.xml:2520
3358 "<emphasis role='strong'>John Seely Brown</emphasis> is the chief scientist "
3359 "of the Xerox Corporation. His work, as his Web site describes it, is "
3360 "<quote>human learning and … the creation of knowledge ecologies for "
3361 "creating … innovation.</quote>"
3364 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3365 #: freeculture.xml:2526
3367 "Brown thus looks at these technologies of digital creativity a bit "
3368 "differently from the perspectives I've sketched so far. I'm sure he would be "
3369 "excited about any technology that might improve democracy. But his real "
3370 "excitement comes from how these technologies affect learning."
3374 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3375 #: freeculture.xml:2533
3377 "As Brown believes, we learn by tinkering. When <quote>a lot of us grew "
3378 "up,</quote> he explains, that tinkering was done <quote>on motorcycle "
3379 "engines, lawnmower engines, automobiles, radios, and so on.</quote> But "
3380 "digital technologies enable a different kind of tinkering—with "
3381 "abstract ideas though in concrete form. The kids at Just Think! not only "
3382 "think about how a commercial portrays a politician; using digital "
3383 "technology, they can take the commercial apart and manipulate it, tinker "
3384 "with it to see how it does what it does. Digital technologies launch a kind "
3385 "of bricolage, or <quote>free collage,</quote> as Brown calls it. Many get to "
3386 "add to or transform the tinkering of many others."
3389 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3390 #: freeculture.xml:2546
3392 "The best large-scale example of this kind of tinkering so far is free "
3393 "software or open-source software (FS/OSS). FS/OSS is software whose source "
3394 "code is shared. Anyone can download the technology that makes a FS/OSS "
3395 "program run. And anyone eager to learn how a particular bit of FS/OSS "
3396 "technology works can tinker with the code."
3399 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3400 #: freeculture.xml:2553
3402 "This opportunity creates a <quote>completely new kind of learning "
3403 "platform,</quote> as Brown describes. <quote>As soon as you start doing "
3404 "that, you … unleash a free collage on the community, so that other "
3405 "people can start looking at your code, tinkering with it, trying it out, "
3406 "seeing if they can improve it.</quote> Each effort is a kind of "
3407 "apprenticeship. <quote>Open source becomes a major apprenticeship "
3411 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3412 #: freeculture.xml:2561
3414 "In this process, <quote>the concrete things you tinker with are abstract. "
3415 "They are code.</quote> Kids are <quote>shifting to the ability to tinker in "
3416 "the abstract, and this tinkering is no longer an isolated activity that "
3417 "you're doing in your garage. You are tinkering with a community "
3418 "platform. … You are tinkering with other people's stuff. The more you "
3419 "tinker the more you improve.</quote> The more you improve, the more you "
3423 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3424 #: freeculture.xml:2570
3426 "This same thing happens with content, too. And it happens in the same "
3427 "collaborative way when that content is part of the Web. As Brown puts it, "
3428 "<quote>the Web [is] the first medium that truly honors multiple forms of "
3429 "intelligence.</quote> Earlier technologies, such as the typewriter or word "
3430 "processors, helped amplify text. But the Web amplifies much more than "
3431 "text. <quote>The Web … says if you are musical, if you are artistic, "
3432 "if you are visual, if you are interested in film … [then] there is a "
3433 "lot you can start to do on this medium. [It] can now amplify and honor these "
3434 "multiple forms of intelligence.</quote>"
3438 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3439 #: freeculture.xml:2583
3441 "Brown is talking about what Elizabeth Daley, Stephanie Barish, and Just "
3442 "Think! teach: that this tinkering with culture teaches as well as "
3443 "creates. It develops talents differently, and it builds a different kind of "
3447 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3448 #: freeculture.xml:2591
3450 "Yet the freedom to tinker with these objects is not guaranteed. Indeed, as "
3451 "we'll see through the course of this book, that freedom is increasingly "
3452 "highly contested. While there's no doubt that your father had the right to "
3453 "tinker with the car engine, there's great doubt that your child will have "
3454 "the right to tinker with the images she finds all around. The law and, "
3455 "increasingly, technology interfere with a freedom that technology, and "
3456 "curiosity, would otherwise ensure."
3460 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3461 #: freeculture.xml:2607
3463 "See, for example, Edward Felten and Andrew Appel, <quote>Technological "
3464 "Access Control Interferes with Noninfringing Scholarship,</quote> "
3465 "<citetitle>Communications of the Association for Computer "
3466 "Machinery</citetitle> 43 (2000): 9."
3469 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3470 #: freeculture.xml:2600
3472 "These restrictions have become the focus of researchers and scholars. "
3473 "Professor Ed Felten of Princeton (whom we'll see more of in chapter <xref "
3474 "xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"property-i\"/>) has developed a "
3475 "powerful argument in favor of the <quote>right to tinker</quote> as it "
3476 "applies to computer science and to knowledge in general.<placeholder "
3477 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> But Brown's concern is earlier, or younger, or "
3478 "more fundamental. It is about the learning that kids can do, or can't do, "
3479 "because of the law."
3482 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3483 #: freeculture.xml:2615
3485 "<quote>This is where education in the twenty-first century is going,</quote> "
3486 "Brown explains. We need to <quote>understand how kids who grow up digital "
3487 "think and want to learn.</quote>"
3490 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3491 #: freeculture.xml:2620
3493 "<quote>Yet,</quote> as Brown continued, and as the balance of this book will "
3494 "evince, <quote>we are building a legal system that completely suppresses the "
3495 "natural tendencies of today's digital kids. … We're building an "
3496 "architecture that unleashes 60 percent of the brain [and] a legal system "
3497 "that closes down that part of the brain.</quote>"
3500 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3501 #: freeculture.xml:2628
3503 "We're building a technology that takes the magic of Kodak, mixes moving "
3504 "images and sound, and adds a space for commentary and an opportunity to "
3505 "spread that creativity everywhere. But we're building the law to close down "
3509 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3510 #: freeculture.xml:2634
3512 "<quote>No way to run a culture,</quote> as Brewster Kahle, whom we'll meet "
3513 "in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"collectors\"/>, "
3514 "quipped to me in a rare moment of despondence."
3517 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
3518 #: freeculture.xml:2641
3519 msgid "CHAPTER THREE: Catalogs"
3522 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3523 #: freeculture.xml:2642
3527 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3528 #: freeculture.xml:2642 freeculture.xml:2644
3529 msgid "Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI)"
3532 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3533 #: freeculture.xml:2647
3535 "<emphasis role='strong'>In the fall</emphasis> of 2002, Jesse Jordan of "
3536 "Oceanside, New York, enrolled as a freshman at Rensselaer Polytechnic "
3537 "Institute, in Troy, New York. His major at RPI was information "
3538 "technology. Though he is not a programmer, in October Jesse decided to begin "
3539 "to tinker with search engine technology that was available on the RPI "
3543 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3544 #: freeculture.xml:2655
3546 "RPI is one of America's foremost technological research institutions. It "
3547 "offers degrees in fields ranging from architecture and engineering to "
3548 "information sciences. More than 65 percent of its five thousand "
3549 "undergraduates finished in the top 10 percent of their high school "
3550 "class. The school is thus a perfect mix of talent and experience to imagine "
3551 "and then build, a generation for the network age."
3554 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3555 #: freeculture.xml:2663
3557 "RPI's computer network links students, faculty, and administration to one "
3558 "another. It also links RPI to the Internet. Not everything available on the "
3559 "RPI network is available on the Internet. But the network is designed to "
3560 "enable students to get access to the Internet, as well as more intimate "
3561 "access to other members of the RPI community."
3565 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3566 #: freeculture.xml:2670
3568 "Search engines are a measure of a network's intimacy. Google brought the "
3569 "Internet much closer to all of us by fantastically improving the quality of "
3570 "search on the network. Specialty search engines can do this even better. The "
3571 "idea of <quote>intranet</quote> search engines, search engines that search "
3572 "within the network of a particular institution, is to provide users of that "
3573 "institution with better access to material from that institution. "
3574 "Businesses do this all the time, enabling employees to have access to "
3575 "material that people outside the business can't get. Universities do it as "
3579 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3580 #: freeculture.xml:2682
3582 "These engines are enabled by the network technology itself. Microsoft, for "
3583 "example, has a network file system that makes it very easy for search "
3584 "engines tuned to that network to query the system for information about the "
3585 "publicly (within that network) available content. Jesse's search engine was "
3586 "built to take advantage of this technology. It used Microsoft's network file "
3587 "system to build an index of all the files available within the RPI network."
3590 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3591 #: freeculture.xml:2691
3593 "Jesse's wasn't the first search engine built for the RPI network. Indeed, "
3594 "his engine was a simple modification of engines that others had built. His "
3595 "single most important improvement over those engines was to fix a bug within "
3596 "the Microsoft file-sharing system that could cause a user's computer to "
3597 "crash. With the engines that existed before, if you tried to access a file "
3598 "through a Windows browser that was on a computer that was off-line, your "
3599 "computer could crash. Jesse modified the system a bit to fix that problem, "
3600 "by adding a button that a user could click to see if the machine holding the "
3601 "file was still on-line."
3604 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3605 #: freeculture.xml:2703
3607 "Jesse's engine went on-line in late October. Over the following six months, "
3608 "he continued to tweak it to improve its functionality. By March, the system "
3609 "was functioning quite well. Jesse had more than one million files in his "
3610 "directory, including every type of content that might be on users' "
3615 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3616 #: freeculture.xml:2710
3618 "Thus the index his search engine produced included pictures, which students "
3619 "could use to put on their own Web sites; copies of notes or research; copies "
3620 "of information pamphlets; movie clips that students might have created; "
3621 "university brochures—basically anything that users of the RPI network "
3622 "made available in a public folder of their computer."
3625 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3626 #: freeculture.xml:2719
3628 "But the index also included music files. In fact, one quarter of the files "
3629 "that Jesse's search engine listed were music files. But that means, of "
3630 "course, that three quarters were not, and—so that this point is "
3631 "absolutely clear—Jesse did nothing to induce people to put music files "
3632 "in their public folders. He did nothing to target the search engine to these "
3633 "files. He was a kid tinkering with a Google-like technology at a university "
3634 "where he was studying information science, and hence, tinkering was the "
3635 "aim. Unlike Google, or Microsoft, for that matter, he made no money from "
3636 "this tinkering; he was not connected to any business that would make any "
3637 "money from this experiment. He was a kid tinkering with technology in an "
3638 "environment where tinkering with technology was precisely what he was "
3642 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3643 #: freeculture.xml:2734
3645 "On April 3, 2003, Jesse was contacted by the dean of students at RPI. The "
3646 "dean informed Jesse that the Recording Industry Association of America, the "
3647 "RIAA, would be filing a lawsuit against him and three other students whom he "
3648 "didn't even know, two of them at other universities. A few hours later, "
3649 "Jesse was served with papers from the suit. As he read these papers and "
3650 "watched the news reports about them, he was increasingly astonished."
3653 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3654 #: freeculture.xml:2743
3656 "<quote>It was absurd,</quote> he told me. <quote>I don't think I did "
3657 "anything wrong. … I don't think there's anything wrong with the "
3658 "search engine that I ran or … what I had done to it. I mean, I hadn't "
3659 "modified it in any way that promoted or enhanced the work of pirates. I just "
3660 "modified the search engine in a way that would make it easier to "
3661 "use</quote>—again, a <emphasis>search engine</emphasis>, which Jesse "
3662 "had not himself built, using the Windows filesharing system, which Jesse had "
3663 "not himself built, to enable members of the RPI community to get access to "
3664 "content, which Jesse had not himself created or posted, and the vast "
3665 "majority of which had nothing to do with music."
3668 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3669 #: freeculture.xml:2755
3670 msgid "statutory damages"
3674 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3675 #: freeculture.xml:2757
3677 "But the RIAA branded Jesse a pirate. They claimed he operated a network and "
3678 "had therefore <quote>willfully</quote> violated copyright laws. They "
3679 "demanded that he pay them the damages for his wrong. For cases of "
3680 "<quote>willful infringement,</quote> the Copyright Act specifies something "
3681 "lawyers call <quote>statutory damages.</quote> These damages permit a "
3682 "copyright owner to claim $150,000 per infringement. As the RIAA alleged more "
3683 "than one hundred specific copyright infringements, they therefore demanded "
3684 "that Jesse pay them at least $15,000,000."
3687 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3688 #: freeculture.xml:2767
3689 msgid "Princeton University"
3692 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3693 #: freeculture.xml:2768
3694 msgid "Michigan Technical University"
3698 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3699 #: freeculture.xml:2782
3701 "Tim Goral, <quote>Recording Industry Goes After Campus P-2-P Networks: Suit "
3702 "Alleges $97.8 Billion in Damages,</quote> <citetitle>Professional Media "
3703 "Group LCC</citetitle> 6 (2003): 5, available at 2003 WL 55179443."
3706 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3707 #: freeculture.xml:2770
3709 "Similar lawsuits were brought against three other students: one other "
3710 "student at RPI, one at Michigan Technical University, and one at "
3711 "Princeton. Their situations were similar to Jesse's. Though each case was "
3712 "different in detail, the bottom line in each was exactly the same: huge "
3713 "demands for <quote>damages</quote> that the RIAA claimed it was entitled "
3714 "to. If you added up the claims, these four lawsuits were asking courts in "
3715 "the United States to award the plaintiffs close to $100 "
3716 "<emphasis>billion</emphasis>—six times the <emphasis>total</emphasis> "
3717 "profit of the film industry in 2001.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
3721 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3722 #: freeculture.xml:2789
3724 "Jesse called his parents. They were supportive but a bit frightened. An "
3725 "uncle was a lawyer. He began negotiations with the RIAA. They demanded to "
3726 "know how much money Jesse had. Jesse had saved $12,000 from summer jobs and "
3727 "other employment. They demanded $12,000 to dismiss the case."
3730 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3731 #: freeculture.xml:2795
3732 msgid "Oppenheimer, Matt"
3735 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3736 #: freeculture.xml:2797
3738 "The RIAA wanted Jesse to admit to doing something wrong. He refused. They "
3739 "wanted him to agree to an injunction that would essentially make it "
3740 "impossible for him to work in many fields of technology for the rest of his "
3741 "life. He refused. They made him understand that this process of being sued "
3742 "was not going to be pleasant. (As Jesse's father recounted to me, the chief "
3743 "lawyer on the case, Matt Oppenheimer, told Jesse, <quote>You don't want to "
3744 "pay another visit to a dentist like me.</quote>) And throughout, the RIAA "
3745 "insisted it would not settle the case until it took every penny Jesse had "
3750 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3751 #: freeculture.xml:2808
3753 "Jesse's family was outraged at these claims. They wanted to fight. But "
3754 "Jesse's uncle worked to educate the family about the nature of the American "
3755 "legal system. Jesse could fight the RIAA. He might even win. But the cost of "
3756 "fighting a lawsuit like this, Jesse was told, would be at least $250,000. If "
3757 "he won, he would not recover that money. If he won, he would have a piece of "
3758 "paper saying he had won, and a piece of paper saying he and his family were "
3762 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3763 #: freeculture.xml:2818
3765 "So Jesse faced a mafia-like choice: $250,000 and a chance at winning, or "
3766 "$12,000 and a settlement."
3769 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
3770 #: freeculture.xml:2822 freeculture.xml:3181 freeculture.xml:4113 freeculture.xml:5227 freeculture.xml:5278 freeculture.xml:9701 freeculture.xml:9802 freeculture.xml:9976 freeculture.xml:14557 freeculture.xml:14625
3774 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
3775 #: freeculture.xml:2823 freeculture.xml:3182 freeculture.xml:4114 freeculture.xml:9702 freeculture.xml:9803 freeculture.xml:9977 freeculture.xml:14558 freeculture.xml:14626
3776 msgid "recording industry payments to"
3780 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3781 #: freeculture.xml:2834
3783 "Occupational Employment Survey, U.S. Dept. of Labor (2001) "
3784 "(27–2042—Musicians and Singers). See also National Endowment for "
3785 "the Arts, <citetitle>More Than One in a Blue Moon</citetitle> (2000)."
3789 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3790 #: freeculture.xml:2842
3792 "Douglas Lichtman makes a related point in <quote>KaZaA and "
3793 "Punishment,</quote> <citetitle>Wall Street Journal</citetitle>, 10 September "
3797 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3798 #: freeculture.xml:2826
3800 "The recording industry insists this is a matter of law and morality. Let's "
3801 "put the law aside for a moment and think about the morality. Where is the "
3802 "morality in a lawsuit like this? What is the virtue in scapegoatism? The "
3803 "RIAA is an extraordinarily powerful lobby. The president of the RIAA is "
3804 "reported to make more than $1 million a year. Artists, on the other hand, "
3805 "are not well paid. The average recording artist makes $45,900.<placeholder "
3806 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> There are plenty of ways for the RIAA to affect "
3807 "and direct policy. So where is the morality in taking money from a student "
3808 "for running a search engine?<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
3811 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3812 #: freeculture.xml:2847
3814 "On June 23, Jesse wired his savings to the lawyer working for the RIAA. The "
3815 "case against him was then dismissed. And with this, this kid who had "
3816 "tinkered a computer into a $15 million lawsuit became an activist:"
3819 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
3820 #: freeculture.xml:2854
3822 "I was definitely not an activist [before]. I never really meant to be an "
3823 "activist. … [But] I've been pushed into this. In no way did I ever "
3824 "foresee anything like this, but I think it's just completely absurd what the "
3828 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3829 #: freeculture.xml:2861
3831 "Jesse's parents betray a certain pride in their reluctant activist. As his "
3832 "father told me, Jesse <quote>considers himself very conservative, and so do "
3833 "I. … He's not a tree hugger. … I think it's bizarre that they "
3834 "would pick on him. But he wants to let people know that they're sending the "
3835 "wrong message. And he wants to correct the record.</quote>"
3838 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
3839 #: freeculture.xml:2870
3840 msgid "CHAPTER FOUR: <quote>Pirates</quote>"
3843 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3844 #: freeculture.xml:2873
3846 "<emphasis role='strong'>If <quote>piracy</quote> means</emphasis> using the "
3847 "creative property of others without their permission—if <quote>if "
3848 "value, then right</quote> is true—then the history of the content "
3849 "industry is a history of piracy. Every important sector of <quote>big "
3850 "media</quote> today—film, records, radio, and cable TV—was born "
3851 "of a kind of piracy so defined. The consistent story is how last "
3852 "generation's pirates join this generation's country club—until now."
3855 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
3856 #: freeculture.xml:2884
3860 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
3861 #: freeculture.xml:2888
3863 "I am grateful to Peter DiMauro for pointing me to this extraordinary "
3864 "history. See also Siva Vaidhyanathan, <citetitle>Copyrights and "
3865 "Copywrongs</citetitle>, 87–93, which details Edison's "
3866 "<quote>adventures</quote> with copyright and patent. <placeholder "
3867 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
3871 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
3872 #: freeculture.xml:2886
3874 "The film industry of Hollywood was built by fleeing pirates.<placeholder "
3875 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Creators and directors migrated from the East "
3876 "Coast to California in the early twentieth century in part to escape "
3877 "controls that patents granted the inventor of filmmaking, Thomas "
3878 "Edison. These controls were exercised through a monopoly "
3879 "<quote>trust,</quote> the Motion Pictures Patents Company, and were based on "
3880 "Thomas Edison's creative property—patents. Edison formed the MPPC to "
3881 "exercise the rights this creative property gave him, and the MPPC was "
3882 "serious about the control it demanded."
3885 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
3886 #: freeculture.xml:2904
3887 msgid "As one commentator tells one part of the story,"
3890 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
3891 #: freeculture.xml:2908
3893 "A January 1909 deadline was set for all companies to comply with the "
3894 "license. By February, unlicensed outlaws, who referred to themselves as "
3895 "independents protested the trust and carried on business without submitting "
3896 "to the Edison monopoly. In the summer of 1909 the independent movement was "
3897 "in full-swing, with producers and theater owners using illegal equipment and "
3898 "imported film stock to create their own underground market."
3901 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
3902 #: freeculture.xml:2939 freeculture.xml:4326 freeculture.xml:9576 freeculture.xml:9695
3903 msgid "broadcast flag"
3906 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
3907 #: freeculture.xml:2928
3909 "J. A. Aberdeen, <citetitle>Hollywood Renegades: The Society of Independent "
3910 "Motion Picture Producers</citetitle> (Cobblestone Entertainment, 2000) and "
3911 "expanded texts posted at <quote>The Edison Movie Monopoly: The Motion "
3912 "Picture Patents Company vs. the Independent Outlaws,</quote> available at "
3913 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #11</ulink>. For a "
3914 "discussion of the economic motive behind both these limits and the limits "
3915 "imposed by Victor on phonographs, see Randal C. Picker, <quote>From Edison "
3916 "to the Broadcast Flag: Mechanisms of Consent and Refusal and the "
3917 "Propertization of Copyright</quote> (September 2002), University of Chicago "
3918 "Law School, James M. Olin Program in Law and Economics, Working Paper "
3919 "No. 159. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
3922 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><indexterm><primary>
3923 #: freeculture.xml:2941
3924 msgid "Fox, William"
3927 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><indexterm><primary>
3928 #: freeculture.xml:2942
3929 msgid "General Film Company"
3932 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
3933 #: freeculture.xml:2943 freeculture.xml:3201 freeculture.xml:4327 freeculture.xml:9846
3934 msgid "Picker, Randal C."
3937 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
3938 #: freeculture.xml:2917
3940 "With the country experiencing a tremendous expansion in the number of "
3941 "nickelodeons, the Patents Company reacted to the independent movement by "
3942 "forming a strong-arm subsidiary known as the General Film Company to block "
3943 "the entry of non-licensed independents. With coercive tactics that have "
3944 "become legendary, General Film confiscated unlicensed equipment, "
3945 "discontinued product supply to theaters which showed unlicensed films, and "
3946 "effectively monopolized distribution with the acquisition of all U.S. film "
3947 "exchanges, except for the one owned by the independent William Fox who "
3948 "defied the Trust even after his license was revoked.<placeholder "
3949 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> "
3950 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
3955 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
3956 #: freeculture.xml:2953
3958 "Marc Wanamaker, <quote>The First Studios,</quote> <citetitle>The Silents "
3959 "Majority</citetitle>, archived at <ulink "
3960 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #12</ulink>."
3963 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
3964 #: freeculture.xml:2947
3966 "The Napsters of those days, the <quote>independents,</quote> were companies "
3967 "like Fox. And no less than today, these independents were vigorously "
3968 "resisted. <quote>Shooting was disrupted by machinery stolen, and "
3969 "`accidents' resulting in loss of negatives, equipment, buildings and "
3970 "sometimes life and limb frequently occurred.</quote><placeholder "
3971 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> That led the independents to flee the East "
3972 "Coast. California was remote enough from Edison's reach that filmmakers "
3973 "there could pirate his inventions without fear of the law. And the leaders "
3974 "of Hollywood filmmaking, Fox most prominently, did just that."
3978 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
3979 #: freeculture.xml:2963
3981 "Of course, California grew quickly, and the effective enforcement of federal "
3982 "law eventually spread west. But because patents grant the patent holder a "
3983 "truly <quote>limited</quote> monopoly (just seventeen years at that time), "
3984 "by the time enough federal marshals appeared, the patents had expired. A new "
3985 "industry had been born, in part from the piracy of Edison's creative "
3989 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
3990 #: freeculture.xml:2974
3991 msgid "Recorded Music"
3994 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
3995 #: freeculture.xml:2976
3997 "The record industry was born of another kind of piracy, though to see how "
3998 "requires a bit of detail about the way the law regulates music."
4001 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4002 #: freeculture.xml:2980
4003 msgid "Fourneaux, Henri"
4006 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4007 #: freeculture.xml:2982
4008 msgid "Russel, Phil"
4011 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4012 #: freeculture.xml:2984
4014 "At the time that Edison and Henri Fourneaux invented machines for "
4015 "reproducing music (Edison the phonograph, Fourneaux the player piano), the "
4016 "law gave composers the exclusive right to control copies of their music and "
4017 "the exclusive right to control public performances of their music. In other "
4018 "words, in 1900, if I wanted a copy of Phil Russel's 1899 hit <quote>Happy "
4019 "Mose,</quote> the law said I would have to pay for the right to get a copy "
4020 "of the musical score, and I would also have to pay for the right to perform "
4024 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
4025 #: freeculture.xml:2993 freeculture.xml:3142
4029 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4030 #: freeculture.xml:2995
4032 "But what if I wanted to record <quote>Happy Mose,</quote> using Edison's "
4033 "phonograph or Fourneaux's player piano? Here the law stumbled. It was clear "
4034 "enough that I would have to buy any copy of the musical score that I "
4035 "performed in making this recording. And it was clear enough that I would "
4036 "have to pay for any public performance of the work I was recording. But it "
4037 "wasn't totally clear that I would have to pay for a <quote>public "
4038 "performance</quote> if I recorded the song in my own house (even today, you "
4039 "don't owe the Beatles anything if you sing their songs in the shower), or if "
4040 "I recorded the song from memory (copies in your brain are "
4041 "not—yet— regulated by copyright law). So if I simply sang the "
4042 "song into a recording device in the privacy of my own home, it wasn't clear "
4043 "that I owed the composer anything. And more importantly, it wasn't clear "
4044 "whether I owed the composer anything if I then made copies of those "
4045 "recordings. Because of this gap in the law, then, I could effectively "
4046 "pirate someone else's song without paying its composer anything."
4049 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
4050 #: freeculture.xml:3018 freeculture.xml:3035
4051 msgid "Kittredge, Alfred"
4054 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4055 #: freeculture.xml:3014
4057 "The composers (and publishers) were none too happy about this capacity to "
4058 "pirate. As South Dakota senator Alfred Kittredge put it, <placeholder "
4059 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
4062 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
4063 #: freeculture.xml:3029
4065 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright: Hearings on S. 6330 "
4066 "and H.R. 19853 Before the ( Joint) Committees on Patents, 59th Cong. 59, 1st "
4067 "sess. (1906) (statement of Senator Alfred B. Kittredge, of South Dakota, "
4068 "chairman), reprinted in <citetitle>Legislative History of the Copyright "
4069 "Act</citetitle>, E. Fulton Brylawski and Abe Goldman, eds. (South "
4070 "Hackensack, N.J.: Rothman Reprints, 1976). <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
4074 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
4075 #: freeculture.xml:3022
4077 "Imagine the injustice of the thing. A composer writes a song or an opera. A "
4078 "publisher buys at great expense the rights to the same and copyrights "
4079 "it. Along come the phonographic companies and companies who cut music rolls "
4080 "and deliberately steal the work of the brain of the composer and publisher "
4081 "without any regard for [their] rights.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
4085 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4086 #: freeculture.xml:3039
4087 msgid "Sousa, John Philip"
4091 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4092 #: freeculture.xml:3045
4094 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright, 223 (statement of "
4095 "Nathan Burkan, attorney for the Music Publishers Association)."
4099 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4100 #: freeculture.xml:3051
4102 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright, 226 (statement of "
4103 "Nathan Burkan, attorney for the Music Publishers Association)."
4107 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4108 #: freeculture.xml:3058
4110 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright, 23 (statement of "
4111 "John Philip Sousa, composer)."
4114 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4115 #: freeculture.xml:3041
4117 "The innovators who developed the technology to record other people's works "
4118 "were <quote>sponging upon the toil, the work, the talent, and genius of "
4119 "American composers,</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> and the "
4120 "<quote>music publishing industry</quote> was thereby <quote>at the complete "
4121 "mercy of this one pirate.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> "
4122 "As John Philip Sousa put it, in as direct a way as possible, <quote>When "
4123 "they make money out of my pieces, I want a share of it.</quote><placeholder "
4124 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/>"
4128 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4129 #: freeculture.xml:3071
4131 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright, 283–84 "
4132 "(statement of Albert Walker, representative of the Auto-Music Perforating "
4133 "Company of New York)."
4137 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4138 #: freeculture.xml:3082
4140 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright, 376 (prepared "
4141 "memorandum of Philip Mauro, general patent counsel of the American "
4142 "Graphophone Company Association)."
4145 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
4146 #: freeculture.xml:3086
4147 msgid "American Graphophone Company"
4150 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4151 #: freeculture.xml:3063
4153 "These arguments have familiar echoes in the wars of our day. So, too, do the "
4154 "arguments on the other side. The innovators who developed the player piano "
4155 "argued that <quote>it is perfectly demonstrable that the introduction of "
4156 "automatic music players has not deprived any composer of anything he had "
4157 "before their introduction.</quote> Rather, the machines increased the sales "
4158 "of sheet music.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> In any case, the "
4159 "innovators argued, the job of Congress was <quote>to consider first the "
4160 "interest of [the public], whom they represent, and whose servants they "
4161 "are.</quote> <quote>All talk about `theft,'</quote> the general counsel of "
4162 "the American Graphophone Company wrote, <quote>is the merest claptrap, for "
4163 "there exists no property in ideas musical, literary or artistic, except as "
4164 "defined by statute.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> "
4165 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/>"
4169 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4170 #: freeculture.xml:3089
4172 "The law soon resolved this battle in favor of the composer "
4173 "<emphasis>and</emphasis> the recording artist. Congress amended the law to "
4174 "make sure that composers would be paid for the <quote>mechanical "
4175 "reproductions</quote> of their music. But rather than simply granting the "
4176 "composer complete control over the right to make mechanical reproductions, "
4177 "Congress gave recording artists a right to record the music, at a price set "
4178 "by Congress, once the composer allowed it to be recorded once. This is the "
4179 "part of copyright law that makes cover songs possible. Once a composer "
4180 "authorizes a recording of his song, others are free to record the same song, "
4181 "so long as they pay the original composer a fee set by the law."
4184 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4185 #: freeculture.xml:3104
4187 "American law ordinarily calls this a <quote>compulsory license,</quote> but "
4188 "I will refer to it as a <quote>statutory license.</quote> A statutory "
4189 "license is a license whose key terms are set by law. After Congress's "
4190 "amendment of the Copyright Act in 1909, record companies were free to "
4191 "distribute copies of recordings so long as they paid the composer (or "
4192 "copyright holder) the fee set by the statute."
4195 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
4196 #: freeculture.xml:3119 freeculture.xml:14253
4197 msgid "Grisham, John"
4200 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4201 #: freeculture.xml:3112
4203 "This is an exception within the law of copyright. When John Grisham writes a "
4204 "novel, a publisher is free to publish that novel only if Grisham gives the "
4205 "publisher permission. Grisham, in turn, is free to charge whatever he wants "
4206 "for that permission. The price to publish Grisham is thus set by Grisham, "
4207 "and copyright law ordinarily says you have no permission to use Grisham's "
4208 "work except with permission of Grisham. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
4213 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4214 #: freeculture.xml:3136
4216 "Copyright Law Revision: Hearings on S. 2499, S. 2900, H.R. 243, and "
4217 "H.R. 11794 Before the ( Joint) Committee on Patents, 60th Cong., 1st sess., "
4218 "217 (1908) (statement of Senator Reed Smoot, chairman), reprinted in "
4219 "<citetitle>Legislative History of the 1909 Copyright Act</citetitle>, "
4220 "E. Fulton Brylawski and Abe Goldman, eds. (South Hackensack, N.J.: Rothman "
4224 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4225 #: freeculture.xml:3122
4227 "But the law governing recordings gives recording artists less. And thus, in "
4228 "effect, the law <emphasis>subsidizes</emphasis> the recording industry "
4229 "through a kind of piracy—by giving recording artists a weaker right "
4230 "than it otherwise gives creative authors. The Beatles have less control over "
4231 "their creative work than Grisham does. And the beneficiaries of this less "
4232 "control are the recording industry and the public. The recording industry "
4233 "gets something of value for less than it otherwise would pay; the public "
4234 "gets access to a much wider range of musical creativity. Indeed, Congress "
4235 "was quite explicit about its reasons for granting this right. Its fear was "
4236 "the monopoly power of rights holders, and that that power would stifle "
4237 "follow-on creativity.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
4238 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
4241 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4242 #: freeculture.xml:3145
4244 "While the recording industry has been quite coy about this recently, "
4245 "historically it has been quite a supporter of the statutory license for "
4246 "records. As a 1967 report from the House Committee on the Judiciary relates,"
4250 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
4251 #: freeculture.xml:3167
4253 "Copyright Law Revision: Report to Accompany H.R. 2512, House Committee on "
4254 "the Judiciary, 90th Cong., 1st sess., House Document no. 83, (8 March "
4255 "1967). I am grateful to Glenn Brown for drawing my attention to this report."
4258 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
4259 #: freeculture.xml:3152
4261 "the record producers argued vigorously that the compulsory license system "
4262 "must be retained. They asserted that the record industry is a "
4263 "half-billion-dollar business of great economic importance in the United "
4264 "States and throughout the world; records today are the principal means of "
4265 "disseminating music, and this creates special problems, since performers "
4266 "need unhampered access to musical material on nondiscriminatory "
4267 "terms. Historically, the record producers pointed out, there were no "
4268 "recording rights before 1909 and the 1909 statute adopted the compulsory "
4269 "license as a deliberate anti-monopoly condition on the grant of these "
4270 "rights. They argue that the result has been an outpouring of recorded music, "
4271 "with the public being given lower prices, improved quality, and a greater "
4272 "choice.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
4275 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4276 #: freeculture.xml:3174
4278 "By limiting the rights musicians have, by partially pirating their creative "
4279 "work, the record producers, and the public, benefit."
4282 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
4283 #: freeculture.xml:3179 freeculture.xml:4291
4287 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4288 #: freeculture.xml:3185
4289 msgid "Radio was also born of piracy."
4292 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
4293 #: freeculture.xml:3200
4294 msgid "Hand, Learned"
4297 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4298 #: freeculture.xml:3191
4300 "See 17 <citetitle>United States Code</citetitle>, sections 106 and 110. At "
4301 "the beginning, record companies printed <quote>Not Licensed for Radio "
4302 "Broadcast</quote> and other messages purporting to restrict the ability to "
4303 "play a record on a radio station. Judge Learned Hand rejected the argument "
4304 "that a warning attached to a record might restrict the rights of the radio "
4305 "station. See <citetitle>RCA Manufacturing "
4306 "Co</citetitle>. v. <citetitle>Whiteman</citetitle>, 114 F. 2d 86 (2nd "
4307 "Cir. 1940). See also Randal C. Picker, <quote>From Edison to the Broadcast "
4308 "Flag: Mechanisms of Consent and Refusal and the Propertization of "
4309 "Copyright,</quote> <citetitle>University of Chicago Law Review</citetitle> "
4310 "70 (2003): 281. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
4311 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
4314 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4315 #: freeculture.xml:3188
4317 "When a radio station plays a record on the air, that constitutes a "
4318 "<quote>public performance</quote> of the composer's work.<placeholder "
4319 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> As I described above, the law gives the "
4320 "composer (or copyright holder) an exclusive right to public performances of "
4321 "his work. The radio station thus owes the composer money for that "
4325 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
4326 #: freeculture.xml:3218 freeculture.xml:8912 freeculture.xml:9377 freeculture.xml:12375
4327 msgid "Lovett, Lyle"
4331 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4332 #: freeculture.xml:3208
4334 "But when the radio station plays a record, it is not only performing a copy "
4335 "of the <emphasis>composer's</emphasis> work. The radio station is also "
4336 "performing a copy of the <emphasis>recording artist's</emphasis> work. It's "
4337 "one thing to have <quote>Happy Birthday</quote> sung on the radio by the "
4338 "local children's choir; it's quite another to have it sung by the Rolling "
4339 "Stones or Lyle Lovett. The recording artist is adding to the value of the "
4340 "composition performed on the radio station. And if the law were perfectly "
4341 "consistent, the radio station would have to pay the recording artist for his "
4342 "work, just as it pays the composer of the music for his work. <placeholder "
4343 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
4346 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4347 #: freeculture.xml:3223
4349 "But it doesn't. Under the law governing radio performances, the radio "
4350 "station does not have to pay the recording artist. The radio station need "
4351 "only pay the composer. The radio station thus gets a bit of something for "
4352 "nothing. It gets to perform the recording artist's work for free, even if it "
4353 "must pay the composer something for the privilege of playing the song."
4356 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
4357 #: freeculture.xml:3231 freeculture.xml:3740 freeculture.xml:6190
4361 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4362 #: freeculture.xml:3234
4364 "This difference can be huge. Imagine you compose a piece of music. Imagine "
4365 "it is your first. You own the exclusive right to authorize public "
4366 "performances of that music. So if Madonna wants to sing your song in public, "
4367 "she has to get your permission."
4370 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4371 #: freeculture.xml:3240
4373 "Imagine she does sing your song, and imagine she likes it a lot. She then "
4374 "decides to make a recording of your song, and it becomes a top hit. Under "
4375 "our law, every time a radio station plays your song, you get some money. But "
4376 "Madonna gets nothing, save the indirect effect on the sale of her CDs. The "
4377 "public performance of her recording is not a <quote>protected</quote> "
4378 "right. The radio station thus gets to <emphasis>pirate</emphasis> the value "
4379 "of Madonna's work without paying her anything."
4382 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4383 #: freeculture.xml:3251
4385 "No doubt, one might argue that, on balance, the recording artists "
4386 "benefit. On average, the promotion they get is worth more than the "
4387 "performance rights they give up. Maybe. But even if so, the law ordinarily "
4388 "gives the creator the right to make this choice. By making the choice for "
4389 "him or her, the law gives the radio station the right to take something for "
4393 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
4394 #: freeculture.xml:3261 freeculture.xml:4297
4398 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4399 #: freeculture.xml:3264
4400 msgid "Cable TV was also born of a kind of piracy."
4404 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4405 #: freeculture.xml:3267
4407 "When cable entrepreneurs first started wiring communities with cable "
4408 "television in 1948, most refused to pay broadcasters for the content that "
4409 "they echoed to their customers. Even when the cable companies started "
4410 "selling access to television broadcasts, they refused to pay for what they "
4411 "sold. Cable companies were thus Napsterizing broadcasters' content, but more "
4412 "egregiously than anything Napster ever did— Napster never charged for "
4413 "the content it enabled others to give away."
4416 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4417 #: freeculture.xml:3277
4418 msgid "Anello, Douglas"
4421 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4422 #: freeculture.xml:3278
4423 msgid "Burdick, Quentin"
4426 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
4427 #: freeculture.xml:3279 freeculture.xml:3290
4428 msgid "Hyde, Rosel H."
4431 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4432 #: freeculture.xml:3285
4434 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV: Hearing on S. 1006 Before the "
4435 "Subcommittee on Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights of the Senate Committee "
4436 "on the Judiciary, 89th Cong., 2nd sess., 78 (1966) (statement of Rosel "
4437 "H. Hyde, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission). <placeholder "
4438 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
4442 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4443 #: freeculture.xml:3297
4445 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV, 116 (statement of Douglas A. Anello, "
4446 "general counsel of the National Association of Broadcasters)."
4449 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4450 #: freeculture.xml:3281
4452 "Broadcasters and copyright owners were quick to attack this theft. Rosel "
4453 "Hyde, chairman of the FCC, viewed the practice as a kind of <quote>unfair "
4454 "and potentially destructive competition.</quote><placeholder "
4455 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> There may have been a <quote>public "
4456 "interest</quote> in spreading the reach of cable TV, but as Douglas Anello, "
4457 "general counsel to the National Association of Broadcasters, asked Senator "
4458 "Quentin Burdick during testimony, <quote>Does public interest dictate that "
4459 "you use somebody else's property?</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
4460 "id=\"1\"/> As another broadcaster put it,"
4464 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
4465 #: freeculture.xml:3308
4467 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV, 126 (statement of Ernest W. Jennes, "
4468 "general counsel of the Association of Maximum Service Telecasters, Inc.)."
4471 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
4472 #: freeculture.xml:3304
4474 "The extraordinary thing about the CATV business is that it is the only "
4475 "business I know of where the product that is being sold is not paid "
4476 "for.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
4479 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4480 #: freeculture.xml:3314
4481 msgid "Again, the demand of the copyright holders seemed reasonable enough:"
4485 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
4486 #: freeculture.xml:3323
4488 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV, 169 (joint statement of Arthur B. Krim, "
4489 "president of United Artists Corp., and John Sinn, president of United "
4490 "Artists Television, Inc.)."
4493 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
4494 #: freeculture.xml:3318
4496 "All we are asking for is a very simple thing, that people who now take our "
4497 "property for nothing pay for it. We are trying to stop piracy and I don't "
4498 "think there is any lesser word to describe it. I think there are harsher "
4499 "words which would fit it.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
4502 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
4503 #: freeculture.xml:3329 freeculture.xml:3337
4504 msgid "Heston, Charlton"
4507 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4508 #: freeculture.xml:3335
4510 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV, 209 (statement of Charlton Heston, "
4511 "president of the Screen Actors Guild). <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
4515 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4516 #: freeculture.xml:3331
4518 "These were <quote>free-ride[rs],</quote> Screen Actor's Guild president "
4519 "Charlton Heston said, who were <quote>depriving actors of "
4520 "compensation.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
4523 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4524 #: freeculture.xml:3342
4526 "But again, there was another side to the debate. As Assistant Attorney "
4527 "General Edwin Zimmerman put it,"
4530 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><indexterm><primary>
4531 #: freeculture.xml:3358 freeculture.xml:3360
4532 msgid "Zimmerman, Edwin"
4535 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
4536 #: freeculture.xml:3356
4538 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV, 216 (statement of Edwin M. Zimmerman, "
4539 "acting assistant attorney general). <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
4543 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
4544 #: freeculture.xml:3347
4546 "Our point here is that unlike the problem of whether you have any copyright "
4547 "protection at all, the problem here is whether copyright holders who are "
4548 "already compensated, who already have a monopoly, should be permitted to "
4549 "extend that monopoly. … The question here is how much compensation "
4550 "they should have and how far back they should carry their right to "
4551 "compensation.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
4552 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
4555 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4556 #: freeculture.xml:3364
4558 "Copyright owners took the cable companies to court. Twice the Supreme Court "
4559 "held that the cable companies owed the copyright owners nothing."
4562 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4563 #: freeculture.xml:3368
4565 "It took Congress almost thirty years before it resolved the question of "
4566 "whether cable companies had to pay for the content they "
4567 "<quote>pirated.</quote> In the end, Congress resolved this question in the "
4568 "same way that it resolved the question about record players and player "
4569 "pianos. Yes, cable companies would have to pay for the content that they "
4570 "broadcast; but the price they would have to pay was not set by the copyright "
4571 "owner. The price was set by law, so that the broadcasters couldn't exercise "
4572 "veto power over the emerging technologies of cable. Cable companies thus "
4573 "built their empire in part upon a <quote>piracy</quote> of the value created "
4574 "by broadcasters' content."
4578 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4579 #: freeculture.xml:3385
4581 "See, for example, National Music Publisher's Association, <citetitle>The "
4582 "Engine of Free Expression: Copyright on the Internet—The Myth of Free "
4583 "Information</citetitle>, available at <ulink "
4584 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #13</ulink>. <quote>The threat of "
4585 "piracy—the use of someone else's creative work without permission or "
4586 "compensation—has grown with the Internet.</quote>"
4589 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4590 #: freeculture.xml:3380
4592 "<emphasis role='strong'>These separate stories</emphasis> sing a common "
4593 "theme. If <quote>piracy</quote> means using value from someone else's "
4594 "creative property without permission from that creator—as it is "
4595 "increasingly described today<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
4596 "— then <emphasis>every</emphasis> industry affected by copyright today "
4597 "is the product and beneficiary of a certain kind of piracy. Film, records, "
4598 "radio, cable TV. … The list is long and could well be expanded. Every "
4599 "generation welcomes the pirates from the last. Every generation—until "
4603 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
4604 #: freeculture.xml:3402
4605 msgid "CHAPTER FIVE: <quote>Piracy</quote>"
4608 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4609 #: freeculture.xml:3404
4611 "<emphasis role='strong'>There is piracy</emphasis> of copyrighted "
4612 "material. Lots of it. This piracy comes in many forms. The most significant "
4613 "is commercial piracy, the unauthorized taking of other people's content "
4614 "within a commercial context. Despite the many justifications that are "
4615 "offered in its defense, this taking is wrong. No one should condone it, and "
4616 "the law should stop it."
4620 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4621 #: freeculture.xml:3412
4623 "But as well as copy-shop piracy, there is another kind of "
4624 "<quote>taking</quote> that is more directly related to the Internet. That "
4625 "taking, too, seems wrong to many, and it is wrong much of the time. Before "
4626 "we paint this taking <quote>piracy,</quote> however, we should understand "
4627 "its nature a bit more. For the harm of this taking is significantly more "
4628 "ambiguous than outright copying, and the law should account for that "
4629 "ambiguity, as it has so often done in the past."
4632 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
4633 #: freeculture.xml:3422
4637 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
4638 #: freeculture.xml:3423 freeculture.xml:3502 freeculture.xml:3551 freeculture.xml:14657
4639 msgid "Asia, commercial piracy in"
4643 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4644 #: freeculture.xml:3431
4646 "See IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry), "
4647 "<citetitle>The Recording Industry Commercial Piracy Report 2003</citetitle>, "
4648 "July 2003, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
4649 "#14</ulink>. See also Ben Hunt, <quote>Companies Warned on Music Piracy "
4650 "Risk,</quote> <citetitle>Financial Times</citetitle>, 14 February 2003, 11."
4653 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4654 #: freeculture.xml:3425
4656 "All across the world, but especially in Asia and Eastern Europe, there are "
4657 "businesses that do nothing but take others people's copyrighted content, "
4658 "copy it, and sell it—all without the permission of a copyright "
4659 "owner. The recording industry estimates that it loses about $4.6 billion "
4660 "every year to physical piracy<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> (that "
4661 "works out to one in three CDs sold worldwide). The MPAA estimates that it "
4662 "loses $3 billion annually worldwide to piracy."
4665 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4666 #: freeculture.xml:3441
4668 "This is piracy plain and simple. Nothing in the argument of this book, nor "
4669 "in the argument that most people make when talking about the subject of this "
4670 "book, should draw into doubt this simple point: This piracy is wrong."
4673 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4674 #: freeculture.xml:3447
4676 "Which is not to say that excuses and justifications couldn't be made for "
4677 "it. We could, for example, remind ourselves that for the first one hundred "
4678 "years of the American Republic, America did not honor foreign copyrights. We "
4679 "were born, in this sense, a pirate nation. It might therefore seem "
4680 "hypocritical for us to insist so strongly that other developing nations "
4681 "treat as wrong what we, for the first hundred years of our existence, "
4685 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4686 #: freeculture.xml:3456
4688 "That excuse isn't terribly strong. Technically, our law did not ban the "
4689 "taking of foreign works. It explicitly limited itself to American "
4690 "works. Thus the American publishers who published foreign works without the "
4691 "permission of foreign authors were not violating any rule. The copy shops "
4692 "in Asia, by contrast, are violating Asian law. Asian law does protect "
4693 "foreign copyrights, and the actions of the copy shops violate that law. So "
4694 "the wrong of piracy that they engage in is not just a moral wrong, but a "
4695 "legal wrong, and not just an internationally legal wrong, but a locally "
4696 "legal wrong as well."
4699 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4700 #: freeculture.xml:3467
4702 "True, these local rules have, in effect, been imposed upon these "
4703 "countries. No country can be part of the world economy and choose <beginpage "
4704 "pagenum=\"77\"/> not to protect copyright internationally. We may have been "
4705 "born a pirate nation, but we will not allow any other nation to have a "
4706 "similar childhood."
4709 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
4710 #: freeculture.xml:3495
4711 msgid "agricultural patents"
4714 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
4715 #: freeculture.xml:3496 freeculture.xml:12665 freeculture.xml:13114 freeculture.xml:13121
4716 msgid "Drahos, Peter"
4719 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4720 #: freeculture.xml:3480
4722 "See Peter Drahos with John Braithwaite, Information Feudalism: "
4723 "<citetitle>Who Owns the Knowledge Economy?</citetitle> (New York: The New "
4724 "Press, 2003), 10–13, 209. The Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual "
4725 "Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement obligates member nations to create "
4726 "administrative and enforcement mechanisms for intellectual property rights, "
4727 "a costly proposition for developing countries. Additionally, patent rights "
4728 "may lead to higher prices for staple industries such as agriculture. Critics "
4729 "of TRIPS question the disparity between burdens imposed upon developing "
4730 "countries and benefits conferred to industrialized nations. TRIPS does "
4731 "permit governments to use patents for public, noncommercial uses without "
4732 "first obtaining the patent holder's permission. Developing nations may be "
4733 "able to use this to gain the benefits of foreign patents at lower "
4734 "prices. This is a promising strategy for developing nations within the TRIPS "
4735 "framework. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
4736 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
4739 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4740 #: freeculture.xml:3475
4742 "If a country is to be treated as a sovereign, however, then its laws are its "
4743 "laws regardless of their source. The international law under which these "
4744 "nations live gives them some opportunities to escape the burden of "
4745 "intellectual property law.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> In my "
4746 "view, more developing nations should take advantage of that opportunity, but "
4747 "when they don't, then their laws should be respected. And under the laws of "
4748 "these nations, this piracy is wrong."
4751 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
4752 #: freeculture.xml:3517 freeculture.xml:3787 freeculture.xml:14801
4753 msgid "Liebowitz, Stan"
4756 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4757 #: freeculture.xml:3510
4759 "For an analysis of the economic impact of copying technology, see Stan "
4760 "Liebowitz, <citetitle>Rethinking the Network Economy</citetitle> (New York: "
4761 "Amacom, 2002), 144–90. <quote>In some instances … the impact of "
4762 "piracy on the copyright holder's ability to appropriate the value of the "
4763 "work will be negligible. One obvious instance is the case where the "
4764 "individual engaging in pirating would not have purchased an original even if "
4765 "pirating were not an option.</quote> Ibid., 149. <placeholder "
4766 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
4769 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4770 #: freeculture.xml:3504
4772 "Alternatively, we could try to excuse this piracy by noting that in any "
4773 "case, it does no harm to the industry. The Chinese who get access to "
4774 "American CDs at 50 cents a copy are not people who would have bought those "
4775 "American CDs at $15 a copy. So no one really has any less money than they "
4776 "otherwise would have had.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
4779 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4780 #: freeculture.xml:3521
4782 "This is often true (though I have friends who have purchased many thousands "
4783 "of pirated DVDs who certainly have enough money to pay for the content they "
4784 "have taken), and it does mitigate to some degree the harm caused by such "
4785 "taking. Extremists in this debate love to say, <quote>You wouldn't go into "
4786 "Barnes & Noble and take a book off of the shelf without paying; why "
4787 "should it be any different with on-line music?</quote> The difference is, of "
4788 "course, that when you take a book from Barnes & Noble, it has one less "
4789 "book to sell. By contrast, when you take an MP3 from a computer network, "
4790 "there is not one less CD that can be sold. The physics of piracy of the "
4791 "intangible are different from the physics of piracy of the tangible."
4795 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4796 #: freeculture.xml:3534
4798 "This argument is still very weak. However, although copyright is a property "
4799 "right of a very special sort, it <emphasis>is</emphasis> a property "
4800 "right. Like all property rights, the copyright gives the owner the right to "
4801 "decide the terms under which content is shared. If the copyright owner "
4802 "doesn't want to sell, she doesn't have to. There are exceptions: important "
4803 "statutory licenses that apply to copyrighted content regardless of the wish "
4804 "of the copyright owner. Those licenses give people the right to "
4805 "<quote>take</quote> copyrighted content whether or not the copyright owner "
4806 "wants to sell. But where the law does not give people the right to take "
4807 "content, it is wrong to take that content even if the wrong does no harm. If "
4808 "we have a property system, and that system is properly balanced to the "
4809 "technology of a time, then it is wrong to take property without the "
4810 "permission of a property owner. That is exactly what <quote>property</quote> "
4814 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
4815 #: freeculture.xml:3564 freeculture.xml:3592 freeculture.xml:11473 freeculture.xml:12990 freeculture.xml:13555
4816 msgid "GNU/Linux operating system"
4819 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
4820 #: freeculture.xml:3565 freeculture.xml:3595 freeculture.xml:11475 freeculture.xml:12991 freeculture.xml:13556
4821 msgid "Linux operating system"
4824 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
4825 #: freeculture.xml:3567 freeculture.xml:5217
4829 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><secondary>
4830 #: freeculture.xml:3568
4831 msgid "Windows operating system of"
4834 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
4835 #: freeculture.xml:3570
4839 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4840 #: freeculture.xml:3553
4842 "Finally, we could try to excuse this piracy with the argument that the "
4843 "piracy actually helps the copyright owner. When the Chinese "
4844 "<quote>steal</quote> Windows, that makes the Chinese dependent on "
4845 "Microsoft. Microsoft loses the value of the software that was taken. But it "
4846 "gains users who are used to life in the Microsoft world. Over time, as the "
4847 "nation grows more wealthy, more and more people will buy software rather "
4848 "than steal it. And hence over time, because that buying will benefit "
4849 "Microsoft, Microsoft benefits from the piracy. If instead of pirating "
4850 "Microsoft Windows, the Chinese used the free GNU/Linux operating system, "
4851 "then these Chinese users would not eventually be buying Microsoft. Without "
4852 "piracy, then, Microsoft would lose. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
4853 "id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> <placeholder "
4854 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/>"
4857 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4858 #: freeculture.xml:3573
4860 "This argument, too, is somewhat true. The addiction strategy is a good "
4861 "one. Many businesses practice it. Some thrive because of it. Law students, "
4862 "for example, are given free access to the two largest legal databases. The "
4863 "companies marketing both hope the students will become so used to their "
4864 "service that they will want to use it and not the other when they become "
4865 "lawyers (and must pay high subscription fees)."
4868 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
4869 #: freeculture.xml:3593
4870 msgid "Internet Explorer"
4873 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
4874 #: freeculture.xml:3594
4878 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4879 #: freeculture.xml:3581
4881 "Still, the argument is not terribly persuasive. We don't give the alcoholic "
4882 "a defense when he steals his first beer, merely because that will make it "
4883 "more likely that he will buy the next three. Instead, we ordinarily allow "
4884 "businesses to decide for themselves when it is best to give their product "
4885 "away. If Microsoft fears the competition of GNU/Linux, then Microsoft can "
4886 "give its product away, as it did, for example, with Internet Explorer to "
4887 "fight Netscape. A property right means giving the property owner the right "
4888 "to say who gets access to what—at least ordinarily. And if the law "
4889 "properly balances the rights of the copyright owner with the rights of "
4890 "access, then violating the law is still wrong. <placeholder "
4891 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> "
4892 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
4897 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4898 #: freeculture.xml:3599
4900 "Thus, while I understand the pull of these justifications for piracy, and I "
4901 "certainly see the motivation, in my view, in the end, these efforts at "
4902 "justifying commercial piracy simply don't cut it. This kind of piracy is "
4903 "rampant and just plain wrong. It doesn't transform the content it steals; it "
4904 "doesn't transform the market it competes in. It merely gives someone access "
4905 "to something that the law says he should not have. Nothing has changed to "
4906 "draw that law into doubt. This form of piracy is flat out wrong."
4909 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4910 #: freeculture.xml:3609
4912 "But as the examples from the four chapters that introduced this part "
4913 "suggest, even if some piracy is plainly wrong, not all <quote>piracy</quote> "
4914 "is. Or at least, not all <quote>piracy</quote> is wrong if that term is "
4915 "understood in the way it is increasingly used today. Many kinds of "
4916 "<quote>piracy</quote> are useful and productive, to produce either new "
4917 "content or new ways of doing business. Neither our tradition nor any "
4918 "tradition has ever banned all <quote>piracy</quote> in that sense of the "
4922 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4923 #: freeculture.xml:3618
4925 "This doesn't mean that there are no questions raised by the latest piracy "
4926 "concern, peer-to-peer file sharing. But it does mean that we need to "
4927 "understand the harm in peer-to-peer sharing a bit more before we condemn it "
4928 "to the gallows with the charge of piracy."
4931 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4932 #: freeculture.xml:3624
4934 "For (1) like the original Hollywood, p2p sharing escapes an overly "
4935 "controlling industry; and (2) like the original recording industry, it "
4936 "simply exploits a new way to distribute content; but (3) unlike cable TV, no "
4937 "one is selling the content that is shared on p2p services."
4940 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4941 #: freeculture.xml:3630
4943 "These differences distinguish p2p sharing from true piracy. They should push "
4944 "us to find a way to protect artists while enabling this sharing to survive."
4947 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
4948 #: freeculture.xml:3636
4953 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4954 #: freeculture.xml:3641
4956 "<citetitle>Bach</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Longman</citetitle>, 98 "
4957 "Eng. Rep. 1274 (1777)."
4961 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4962 #: freeculture.xml:3638
4964 "The key to the <quote>piracy</quote> that the law aims to quash is a use "
4965 "that <quote>rob[s] the author of [his] profit.</quote><placeholder "
4966 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> This means we must determine whether and how "
4967 "much p2p sharing harms before we know how strongly the law should seek to "
4968 "either prevent it or find an alternative to assure the author of his profit."
4971 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
4972 #: freeculture.xml:3649 freeculture.xml:3656
4976 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
4977 #: freeculture.xml:3666 freeculture.xml:8332
4978 msgid "Christensen, Clayton M."
4981 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4982 #: freeculture.xml:3656
4984 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> See Clayton M. Christensen, "
4985 "<citetitle>The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary National Bestseller "
4986 "That Changed the Way We Do Business</citetitle> (New York: HarperBusiness, "
4987 "2000). Professor Christensen examines why companies that give rise to and "
4988 "dominate a product area are frequently unable to come up with the most "
4989 "creative, paradigm-shifting uses for their own products. This job usually "
4990 "falls to outside innovators, who reassemble existing technology in inventive "
4991 "ways. For a discussion of Christensen's ideas, see Lawrence Lessig, "
4992 "<citetitle>Future</citetitle>, 89–92, 139. <placeholder "
4993 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
4996 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
4997 #: freeculture.xml:3669
4998 msgid "Fanning, Shawn"
5001 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5002 #: freeculture.xml:3651
5004 "Peer-to-peer sharing was made famous by Napster. But the inventors of the "
5005 "Napster technology had not made any major technological innovations. Like "
5006 "every great advance in innovation on the Internet (and, arguably, off the "
5007 "Internet as well<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>), Shawn Fanning "
5008 "and crew had simply put together components that had been developed "
5009 "independently. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
5013 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5014 #: freeculture.xml:3677
5016 "See Carolyn Lochhead, <quote>Silicon Valley Dream, Hollywood "
5017 "Nightmare,</quote> <citetitle>San Francisco Chronicle</citetitle>, 24 "
5018 "September 2002, A1; <quote>Rock 'n' Roll Suicide,</quote> <citetitle>New "
5019 "Scientist</citetitle>, 6 July 2002, 42; Benny Evangelista, <quote>Napster "
5020 "Names CEO, Secures New Financing,</quote> <citetitle>San Francisco "
5021 "Chronicle</citetitle>, 23 May 2003, C1; <quote>Napster's Wake-Up "
5022 "Call,</quote> <citetitle>Economist</citetitle>, 24 June 2000, 23; John "
5023 "Naughton, <quote>Hollywood at War with the Internet</quote> (London) "
5024 "<citetitle>Times</citetitle>, 26 July 2002, 18."
5027 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5028 #: freeculture.xml:3672
5030 "The result was spontaneous combustion. Launched in July 1999, Napster "
5031 "amassed over 10 million users within nine months. After eighteen months, "
5032 "there were close to 80 million registered users of the system.<placeholder "
5033 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Courts quickly shut Napster down, but other "
5034 "services emerged to take its place. (Kazaa is currently the most popular p2p "
5035 "service. It boasts over 100 million members.) These services' systems are "
5036 "different architecturally, though not very different in function: Each "
5037 "enables users to make content available to any number of other users. With a "
5038 "p2p system, you can share your favorite songs with your best friend— "
5039 "or your 20,000 best friends."
5043 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5044 #: freeculture.xml:3699
5046 "See Ipsos-Insight, <citetitle>TEMPO: Keeping Pace with Online Music "
5047 "Distribution</citetitle> (September 2002), reporting that 28 percent of "
5048 "Americans aged twelve and older have downloaded music off of the Internet "
5049 "and 30 percent have listened to digital music files stored on their "
5054 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5055 #: freeculture.xml:3708
5057 "Amy Harmon, <quote>Industry Offers a Carrot in Online Music Fight,</quote> "
5058 "<citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 6 June 2003, A1."
5061 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5062 #: freeculture.xml:3693
5064 "According to a number of estimates, a huge proportion of Americans have "
5065 "tasted file-sharing technology. A study by Ipsos-Insight in September 2002 "
5066 "estimated that 60 million Americans had downloaded music—28 percent of "
5067 "Americans older than 12.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> A survey "
5068 "by the NPD group quoted in <citetitle>The New York Times</citetitle> "
5069 "estimated that 43 million citizens used file-sharing networks to exchange "
5070 "content in May 2003.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> The vast "
5071 "majority of these are not kids. Whatever the actual figure, a massive "
5072 "quantity of content is being <quote>taken</quote> on these networks. The "
5073 "ease and inexpensiveness of file-sharing networks have inspired millions to "
5074 "enjoy music in a way that they hadn't before."
5077 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5078 #: freeculture.xml:3717
5080 "Some of this enjoying involves copyright infringement. Some of it does "
5081 "not. And even among the part that is technically copyright infringement, "
5082 "calculating the actual harm to copyright owners is more complicated than one "
5083 "might think. So consider—a bit more carefully than the polarized "
5084 "voices around this debate usually do—the kinds of sharing that file "
5085 "sharing enables, and the kinds of harm it entails."
5089 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5090 #: freeculture.xml:3727
5092 "File sharers share different kinds of content. We can divide these different "
5093 "kinds into four types."
5096 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
5097 #: freeculture.xml:3733
5099 "There are some who use sharing networks as substitutes for purchasing "
5100 "content. Thus, when a new Madonna CD is released, rather than buying the CD, "
5101 "these users simply take it. We might quibble about whether everyone who "
5102 "takes it would actually have bought it if sharing didn't make it available "
5103 "for free. Most probably wouldn't have, but clearly there are some who "
5104 "would. The latter are the target of category A: users who download instead "
5105 "of purchasing. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
5109 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
5110 #: freeculture.xml:3744
5112 "There are some who use sharing networks to sample music before purchasing "
5113 "it. Thus, a friend sends another friend an MP3 of an artist he's not heard "
5114 "of. The other friend then buys CDs by that artist. This is a kind of "
5115 "targeted advertising, quite likely to succeed. If the friend recommending "
5116 "the album gains nothing from a bad recommendation, then one could expect "
5117 "that the recommendations will actually be quite good. The net effect of this "
5118 "sharing could increase the quantity of music purchased."
5122 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
5123 #: freeculture.xml:3755
5125 "There are many who use sharing networks to get access to copyrighted content "
5126 "that is no longer sold or that they would not have purchased because the "
5127 "transaction costs off the Net are too high. This use of sharing networks is "
5128 "among the most rewarding for many. Songs that were part of your childhood "
5129 "but have long vanished from the marketplace magically appear again on the "
5130 "network. (One friend told me that when she discovered Napster, she spent a "
5131 "solid weekend <quote>recalling</quote> old songs. She was astonished at the "
5132 "range and mix of content that was available.) For content not sold, this is "
5133 "still technically a violation of copyright, though because the copyright "
5134 "owner is not selling the content anymore, the economic harm is "
5135 "zero—the same harm that occurs when I sell my collection of 1960s "
5136 "45-rpm records to a local collector."
5141 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
5142 #: freeculture.xml:3772
5144 "Finally, there are many who use sharing networks to get access to content "
5145 "that is not copyrighted or that the copyright owner wants to give away."
5148 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5149 #: freeculture.xml:3778
5150 msgid "How do these different types of sharing balance out?"
5153 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5154 #: freeculture.xml:3786
5156 "See Liebowitz, <citetitle>Rethinking the Network Economy</citetitle>, "
5157 "148–49. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
5160 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5161 #: freeculture.xml:3781
5163 "Let's start with some simple but important points. From the perspective of "
5164 "the law, only type D sharing is clearly legal. From the perspective of "
5165 "economics, only type A sharing is clearly harmful.<placeholder "
5166 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Type B sharing is illegal but plainly "
5167 "beneficial. Type C sharing is illegal, yet good for society (since more "
5168 "exposure to music is good) and harmless to the artist (since the work is "
5169 "not otherwise available). So how sharing matters on balance is a hard "
5170 "question to answer—and certainly much more difficult than the current "
5171 "rhetoric around the issue suggests."
5174 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5175 #: freeculture.xml:3797
5177 "Whether on balance sharing is harmful depends importantly on how harmful "
5178 "type A sharing is. Just as Edison complained about Hollywood, composers "
5179 "complained about piano rolls, recording artists complained about radio, and "
5180 "broadcasters complained about cable TV, the music industry complains that "
5181 "type A sharing is a kind of <quote>theft</quote> that is "
5182 "<quote>devastating</quote> the industry."
5186 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5187 #: freeculture.xml:3812
5189 "See Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, <citetitle>Technology Evolution and the "
5190 "Music Industry's Business Model Crisis</citetitle> (2003), 3. This report "
5191 "describes the music industry's effort to stigmatize the budding practice of "
5192 "cassette taping in the 1970s, including an advertising campaign featuring a "
5193 "cassette-shape skull and the caption <quote>Home taping is killing "
5194 "music.</quote> At the time digital audio tape became a threat, the Office of "
5195 "Technical Assessment conducted a survey of consumer behavior. In 1988, 40 "
5196 "percent of consumers older than ten had taped music to a cassette "
5197 "format. U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, "
5198 "<citetitle>Copyright and Home Copying: Technology Challenges the "
5199 "Law</citetitle>, OTA-CIT-422 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing "
5200 "Office, October 1989), 145–56."
5203 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5204 #: freeculture.xml:3805
5206 "While the numbers do suggest that sharing is harmful, how harmful is harder "
5207 "to reckon. It has long been the recording industry's practice to blame "
5208 "technology for any drop in sales. The history of cassette recording is a "
5209 "good example. As a study by Cap Gemini Ernst & Young put it, "
5210 "<quote>Rather than exploiting this new, popular technology, the labels "
5211 "fought it.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The labels "
5212 "claimed that every album taped was an album unsold, and when record sales "
5213 "fell by 11.4 percent in 1981, the industry claimed that its point was "
5214 "proved. Technology was the problem, and banning or regulating technology was "
5219 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5220 #: freeculture.xml:3838
5221 msgid "U.S. Congress, <citetitle>Copyright and Home Copying</citetitle>, 4."
5224 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5225 #: freeculture.xml:3830
5227 "Yet soon thereafter, and before Congress was given an opportunity to enact "
5228 "regulation, MTV was launched, and the industry had a record "
5229 "turnaround. <quote>In the end,</quote> Cap Gemini concludes, <quote>the "
5230 "`crisis' … was not the fault of the tapers—who did not [stop "
5231 "after MTV came into being]—but had to a large extent resulted from "
5232 "stagnation in musical innovation at the major labels.</quote><placeholder "
5233 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
5236 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5237 #: freeculture.xml:3842
5239 "But just because the industry was wrong before does not mean it is wrong "
5240 "today. To evaluate the real threat that p2p sharing presents to the industry "
5241 "in particular, and society in general—or at least the society that "
5242 "inherits the tradition that gave us the film industry, the record industry, "
5243 "the radio industry, cable TV, and the VCR—the question is not simply "
5244 "whether type A sharing is harmful. The question is also "
5245 "<emphasis>how</emphasis> harmful type A sharing is, and how beneficial the "
5246 "other types of sharing are."
5249 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5250 #: freeculture.xml:3852
5252 "We start to answer this question by focusing on the net harm, from the "
5253 "standpoint of the industry as a whole, that sharing networks cause. The "
5254 "<quote>net harm</quote> to the industry as a whole is the amount by which "
5255 "type A sharing exceeds type B. If the record companies sold more records "
5256 "through sampling than they lost through substitution, then sharing networks "
5257 "would actually benefit music companies on balance. They would therefore have "
5258 "little <emphasis>static</emphasis> reason to resist them."
5261 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5262 #: freeculture.xml:3863
5264 "Could that be true? Could the industry as a whole be gaining because of file "
5265 "sharing? Odd as that might sound, the data about CD sales actually suggest "
5266 "it might be close."
5270 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5271 #: freeculture.xml:3872
5273 "See Recording Industry Association of America, <citetitle>2002 Yearend "
5274 "Statistics</citetitle>, available at <ulink "
5275 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #15</ulink>. A later report "
5276 "indicates even greater losses. See Recording Industry Association of "
5277 "America, <citetitle>Some Facts About Music Piracy</citetitle>, 25 June 2003, "
5278 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #16</ulink>: "
5279 "<quote>In the past four years, unit shipments of recorded music have fallen "
5280 "by 26 percent from 1.16 billion units in to 860 million units in 2002 in the "
5281 "United States (based on units shipped). In terms of sales, revenues are "
5282 "down 14 percent, from $14.6 billion in to $12.6 billion last year (based on "
5283 "U.S. dollar value of shipments). The music industry worldwide has gone from "
5284 "a $39 billion industry in 2000 down to a $32 billion industry in 2002 (based "
5285 "on U.S. dollar value of shipments).</quote>"
5288 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
5289 #: freeculture.xml:3899
5293 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5294 #: freeculture.xml:3896
5296 "Jane Black, <quote>Big Music's Broken Record,</quote> BusinessWeek online, "
5297 "13 February 2003, available at <ulink "
5298 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #17</ulink>. <placeholder "
5299 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
5302 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5303 #: freeculture.xml:3868
5305 "In 2002, the RIAA reported that CD sales had fallen by 8.9 percent, from 882 "
5306 "million to 803 million units; revenues fell 6.7 percent.<placeholder "
5307 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> This confirms a trend over the past few "
5308 "years. The RIAA blames Internet piracy for the trend, though there are many "
5309 "other causes that could account for this drop. SoundScan, for example, "
5310 "reports a more than 20 percent drop in the number of CDs released since "
5311 "1999. That no doubt accounts for some of the decrease in sales. Rising "
5312 "prices could account for at least some of the loss. <quote>From 1999 to "
5313 "2001, the average price of a CD rose 7.2 percent, from $13.04 to "
5314 "$14.19.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> Competition from "
5315 "other forms of media could also account for some of the decline. As Jane "
5316 "Black of <citetitle>BusinessWeek</citetitle> notes, <quote>The soundtrack to "
5317 "the film <citetitle>High Fidelity</citetitle> has a list price of "
5318 "$18.98. You could get the whole movie [on DVD] for "
5319 "$19.99.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/>"
5323 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5324 #: freeculture.xml:3914
5326 "But let's assume the RIAA is right, and all of the decline in CD sales is "
5327 "because of Internet sharing. Here's the rub: In the same period that the "
5328 "RIAA estimates that 803 million CDs were sold, the RIAA estimates that 2.1 "
5329 "billion CDs were downloaded for free. Thus, although 2.6 times the total "
5330 "number of CDs sold were downloaded for free, sales revenue fell by just 6.7 "
5334 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5335 #: freeculture.xml:3922
5337 "There are too many different things happening at the same time to explain "
5338 "these numbers definitively, but one conclusion is unavoidable: The recording "
5339 "industry constantly asks, <quote>What's the difference between downloading a "
5340 "song and stealing a CD?</quote>—but their own numbers reveal the "
5341 "difference. If I steal a CD, then there is one less CD to sell. Every taking "
5342 "is a lost sale. But on the basis of the numbers the RIAA provides, it is "
5343 "absolutely clear that the same is not true of downloads. If every download "
5344 "were a lost sale—if every use of Kazaa <quote>rob[bed] the author of "
5345 "[his] profit</quote>—then the industry would have suffered a 100 "
5346 "percent drop in sales last year, not a 7 percent drop. If 2.6 times the "
5347 "number of CDs sold were downloaded for free, and yet sales revenue dropped "
5348 "by just 6.7 percent, then there is a huge difference between "
5349 "<quote>downloading a song and stealing a CD.</quote>"
5352 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5353 #: freeculture.xml:3937
5355 "These are the harms—alleged and perhaps exaggerated but, let's assume, "
5356 "real. What of the benefits? File sharing may impose costs on the recording "
5357 "industry. What value does it produce in addition to these costs?"
5361 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5362 #: freeculture.xml:3949
5364 "By one estimate, 75 percent of the music released by the major labels is no "
5365 "longer in print. See Online Entertainment and Copyright Law—Coming "
5366 "Soon to a Digital Device Near You: Hearing Before the Senate Committee on "
5367 "the Judiciary, 107th Cong., 1st sess. (3 April 2001) (prepared statement of "
5368 "the Future of Music Coalition), available at <ulink "
5369 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #18</ulink>."
5372 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5373 #: freeculture.xml:3943
5375 "One benefit is type C sharing—making available content that is "
5376 "technically still under copyright but is no longer commercially available. "
5377 "This is not a small category of content. There are millions of tracks that "
5378 "are no longer commercially available.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
5379 "id=\"0\"/> And while it's conceivable that some of this content is not "
5380 "available because the artist producing the content doesn't want it to be "
5381 "made available, the vast majority of it is unavailable solely because the "
5382 "publisher or the distributor has decided it no longer makes economic sense "
5383 "<emphasis>to the company</emphasis> to make it available."
5387 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5388 #: freeculture.xml:3969
5390 "While there are not good estimates of the number of used record stores in "
5391 "existence, in 2002, there were 7,198 used book dealers in the United States, "
5392 "an increase of 20 percent since 1993. See Book Hunter Press, <citetitle>The "
5393 "Quiet Revolution: The Expansion of the Used Book Market</citetitle> (2002), "
5394 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
5395 "#19</ulink>. Used records accounted for $260 million in sales in 2002. See "
5396 "National Association of Recording Merchandisers, <quote>2002 Annual Survey "
5397 "Results,</quote> available at <ulink "
5398 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #20</ulink>."
5401 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5402 #: freeculture.xml:3963
5404 "In real space—long before the Internet—the market had a simple "
5405 "response to this problem: used book and record stores. There are thousands "
5406 "of used book and used record stores in America today.<placeholder "
5407 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> These stores buy content from owners, then sell "
5408 "the content they buy. And under American copyright law, when they buy and "
5409 "sell this content, <emphasis>even if the content is still under "
5410 "copyright</emphasis>, the copyright owner doesn't get a dime. Used book and "
5411 "record stores are commercial entities; their owners make money from the "
5412 "content they sell; but as with cable companies before statutory licensing, "
5413 "they don't have to pay the copyright owner for the content they sell."
5416 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
5417 #: freeculture.xml:3989
5418 msgid "Bernstein, Leonard"
5421 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
5422 #: freeculture.xml:3991 freeculture.xml:4016 freeculture.xml:4507 freeculture.xml:5829 freeculture.xml:5837 freeculture.xml:5892 freeculture.xml:6773 freeculture.xml:7176 freeculture.xml:7213 freeculture.xml:7429 freeculture.xml:13748 freeculture.xml:14476
5426 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
5427 #: freeculture.xml:3992 freeculture.xml:5830 freeculture.xml:5838 freeculture.xml:6774 freeculture.xml:14477
5428 msgid "out of print"
5431 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5432 #: freeculture.xml:3995
5434 "Type C sharing, then, is very much like used book stores or used record "
5435 "stores. It is different, of course, because the person making the content "
5436 "available isn't making money from making the content available. It is also "
5437 "different, of course, because in real space, when I sell a record, I don't "
5438 "have it anymore, while in cyberspace, when someone shares my 1949 recording "
5439 "of Bernstein's <quote>Two Love Songs,</quote> I still have it. That "
5440 "difference would matter economically if the owner of the copyright were "
5441 "selling the record in competition to my sharing. But we're talking about the "
5442 "class of content that is not currently commercially available. The Internet "
5443 "is making it available, through cooperative sharing, without competing with "
5447 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5448 #: freeculture.xml:4008
5450 "It may well be, all things considered, that it would be better if the "
5451 "copyright owner got something from this trade. But just because it may well "
5452 "be better, it doesn't follow that it would be good to ban used book "
5453 "stores. Or put differently, if you think that type C sharing should be "
5454 "stopped, do you think that libraries and used book stores should be shut as "
5458 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
5459 #: freeculture.xml:4017 freeculture.xml:13749
5460 msgid "free on-line releases of"
5464 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5465 #: freeculture.xml:4020
5467 "Finally, and perhaps most importantly, file-sharing networks enable type D "
5468 "sharing to occur—the sharing of content that copyright owners want to "
5469 "have shared or for which there is no continuing copyright. This sharing "
5470 "clearly benefits authors and society. Science fiction author Cory Doctorow, "
5471 "for example, released his first novel, <citetitle>Down and Out in the Magic "
5472 "Kingdom</citetitle>, both free on-line and in bookstores on the same "
5473 "day. His (and his publisher's) thinking was that the on-line distribution "
5474 "would be a great advertisement for the <quote>real</quote> book. People "
5475 "would read part on-line, and then decide whether they liked the book or "
5476 "not. If they liked it, they would be more likely to buy it. Doctorow's "
5477 "content is type D content. If sharing networks enable his work to be spread, "
5478 "then both he and society are better off. (Actually, much better off: It is a "
5482 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5483 #: freeculture.xml:4038
5485 "Likewise for work in the public domain: This sharing benefits society with "
5486 "no legal harm to authors at all. If efforts to solve the problem of type A "
5487 "sharing destroy the opportunity for type D sharing, then we lose something "
5488 "important in order to protect type A content."
5491 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5492 #: freeculture.xml:4044
5494 "The point throughout is this: While the recording industry understandably "
5495 "says, <quote>This is how much we've lost,</quote> we must also ask, "
5496 "<quote>How much has society gained from p2p sharing? What are the "
5497 "efficiencies? What is the content that otherwise would be "
5498 "unavailable?</quote>"
5501 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5502 #: freeculture.xml:4051
5504 "For unlike the piracy I described in the first section of this chapter, much "
5505 "of the <quote>piracy</quote> that file sharing enables is plainly legal and "
5506 "good. And like the piracy I described in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: "
5507 "labelnumber\" linkend=\"pirates\"/>, much of this piracy is motivated by a "
5508 "new way of spreading content caused by changes in the technology of "
5509 "distribution. Thus, consistent with the tradition that gave us Hollywood, "
5510 "radio, the recording industry, and cable TV, the question we should be "
5511 "asking about file sharing is how best to preserve its benefits while "
5512 "minimizing (to the extent possible) the wrongful harm it causes artists. The "
5513 "question is one of balance. The law should seek that balance, and that "
5514 "balance will be found only with time."
5517 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5518 #: freeculture.xml:4065
5520 "<quote>But isn't the war just a war against illegal sharing? Isn't the "
5521 "target just what you call type A sharing?</quote>"
5525 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5526 #: freeculture.xml:4082
5528 "See Transcript of Proceedings, In Re: Napster Copyright Litigation at 34- 35 "
5529 "(N.D. Cal., 11 July 2001), nos. MDL-00-1369 MHP, C 99-5183 MHP, available at "
5530 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #21</ulink>. For an "
5531 "account of the litigation and its toll on Napster, see Joseph Menn, "
5532 "<citetitle>All the Rave: The Rise and Fall of Shawn Fanning's "
5533 "Napster</citetitle> (New York: Crown Business, 2003), 269–82."
5536 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5537 #: freeculture.xml:4069
5539 "You would think. And we should hope. But so far, it is not. The effect of "
5540 "the war purportedly on type A sharing alone has been felt far beyond that "
5541 "one class of sharing. That much is obvious from the Napster case "
5542 "itself. When Napster told the district court that it had developed a "
5543 "technology to block the transfer of 99.4 percent of identified infringing "
5544 "material, the district court told counsel for Napster 99.4 percent was not "
5545 "good enough. Napster had to push the infringements <quote>down to "
5546 "zero.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
5549 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5550 #: freeculture.xml:4093
5552 "If 99.4 percent is not good enough, then this is a war on file-sharing "
5553 "technologies, not a war on copyright infringement. There is no way to assure "
5554 "that a p2p system is used 100 percent of the time in compliance with the "
5555 "law, any more than there is a way to assure that 100 percent of VCRs or 100 "
5556 "percent of Xerox machines or 100 percent of handguns are used in compliance "
5557 "with the law. Zero tolerance means zero p2p. The court's ruling means that "
5558 "we as a society must lose the benefits of p2p, even for the totally legal "
5559 "and beneficial uses they serve, simply to assure that there are zero "
5560 "copyright infringements caused by p2p."
5563 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5564 #: freeculture.xml:4104
5566 "Zero tolerance has not been our history. It has not produced the content "
5567 "industry that we know today. The history of American law has been a process "
5568 "of balance. As new technologies changed the way content was distributed, the "
5569 "law adjusted, after some time, to the new technology. In this adjustment, "
5570 "the law sought to ensure the legitimate rights of creators while protecting "
5571 "innovation. Sometimes this has meant more rights for creators. Sometimes "
5575 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5576 #: freeculture.xml:4117
5578 "So, as we've seen, when <quote>mechanical reproduction</quote> threatened "
5579 "the interests of composers, Congress balanced the rights of composers "
5580 "against the interests of the recording industry. It granted rights to "
5581 "composers, but also to the recording artists: Composers were to be paid, but "
5582 "at a price set by Congress. But when radio started broadcasting the "
5583 "recordings made by these recording artists, and they complained to Congress "
5584 "that their <quote>creative property</quote> was not being respected (since "
5585 "the radio station did not have to pay them for the creativity it broadcast), "
5586 "Congress rejected their claim. An indirect benefit was enough."
5589 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5590 #: freeculture.xml:4129
5592 "Cable TV followed the pattern of record albums. When the courts rejected the "
5593 "claim that cable broadcasters had to pay for the content they rebroadcast, "
5594 "Congress responded by giving broadcasters a right to compensation, but at a "
5595 "level set by the law. It likewise gave cable companies the right to the "
5596 "content, so long as they paid the statutory price."
5600 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5601 #: freeculture.xml:4139
5603 "This compromise, like the compromise affecting records and player pianos, "
5604 "served two important goals—indeed, the two central goals of any "
5605 "copyright legislation. First, the law assured that new innovators would have "
5606 "the freedom to develop new ways to deliver content. Second, the law assured "
5607 "that copyright holders would be paid for the content that was "
5608 "distributed. One fear was that if Congress simply required cable TV to pay "
5609 "copyright holders whatever they demanded for their content, then copyright "
5610 "holders associated with broadcasters would use their power to stifle this "
5611 "new technology, cable. But if Congress had permitted cable to use "
5612 "broadcasters' content for free, then it would have unfairly subsidized "
5613 "cable. Thus Congress chose a path that would assure "
5614 "<emphasis>compensation</emphasis> without giving the past (broadcasters) "
5615 "control over the future (cable)."
5618 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
5619 #: freeculture.xml:4154
5623 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5624 #: freeculture.xml:4156
5626 "In the same year that Congress struck this balance, two major producers and "
5627 "distributors of film content filed a lawsuit against another technology, the "
5628 "video tape recorder (VTR, or as we refer to them today, VCRs) that Sony had "
5629 "produced, the Betamax. Disney's and Universal's claim against Sony was "
5630 "relatively simple: Sony produced a device, Disney and Universal claimed, "
5631 "that enabled consumers to engage in copyright infringement. Because the "
5632 "device that Sony built had a <quote>record</quote> button, the device could "
5633 "be used to record copyrighted movies and shows. Sony was therefore "
5634 "benefiting from the copyright infringement of its customers. It should "
5635 "therefore, Disney and Universal claimed, be partially liable for that "
5640 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5641 #: freeculture.xml:4169
5643 "There was something to Disney's and Universal's claim. Sony did decide to "
5644 "design its machine to make it very simple to record television shows. It "
5645 "could have built the machine to block or inhibit any direct copying from a "
5646 "television broadcast. Or possibly, it could have built the machine to copy "
5647 "only if there were a special <quote>copy me</quote> signal on the line. It "
5648 "was clear that there were many television shows that did not grant anyone "
5649 "permission to copy. Indeed, if anyone had asked, no doubt the majority of "
5650 "shows would not have authorized copying. And in the face of this obvious "
5651 "preference, Sony could have designed its system to minimize the opportunity "
5652 "for copyright infringement. It did not, and for that, Disney and Universal "
5653 "wanted to hold it responsible for the architecture it chose."
5657 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5658 #: freeculture.xml:4191
5660 "Copyright Infringements (Audio and Video Recorders): Hearing on S. 1758 "
5661 "Before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, 97th Cong., 1st and 2nd sess., "
5662 "459 (1982) (testimony of Jack Valenti, president, Motion Picture Association "
5663 "of America, Inc.)."
5667 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5668 #: freeculture.xml:4203
5669 msgid "Copyright Infringements (Audio and Video Recorders), 475."
5673 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5674 #: freeculture.xml:4208
5676 "<citetitle>Universal City Studios, Inc</citetitle>. v. <citetitle>Sony "
5677 "Corp. of America</citetitle>, 480 F. Supp. 429, (C.D. Cal., 1979)."
5681 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5682 #: freeculture.xml:4219
5684 "Copyright Infringements (Audio and Video Recorders), 485 (testimony of Jack "
5688 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5689 #: freeculture.xml:4184
5691 "MPAA president Jack Valenti became the studios' most vocal champion. Valenti "
5692 "called VCRs <quote>tapeworms.</quote> He warned, <quote>When there are 20, "
5693 "30, 40 million of these VCRs in the land, we will be invaded by millions of "
5694 "`tapeworms,' eating away at the very heart and essence of the most precious "
5695 "asset the copyright owner has, his copyright.</quote><placeholder "
5696 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> <quote>One does not have to be trained in "
5697 "sophisticated marketing and creative judgment,</quote> he told Congress, "
5698 "<quote>to understand the devastation on the after-theater marketplace caused "
5699 "by the hundreds of millions of tapings that will adversely impact on the "
5700 "future of the creative community in this country. It is simply a question of "
5701 "basic economics and plain common sense.</quote><placeholder "
5702 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> Indeed, as surveys would later show, percent of "
5703 "VCR owners had movie libraries of ten videos or more<placeholder "
5704 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/> — a use the Court would later hold was "
5705 "not <quote>fair.</quote> By <quote>allowing VCR owners to copy freely by the "
5706 "means of an exemption from copyright infringementwithout creating a "
5707 "mechanism to compensate copyrightowners,</quote> Valenti testified, Congress "
5708 "would <quote>take from the owners the very essence of their property: the "
5709 "exclusive right to control who may use their work, that is, who may copy it "
5710 "and thereby profit from its reproduction.</quote><placeholder "
5711 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"3\"/>"
5715 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5716 #: freeculture.xml:4236
5718 "<citetitle>Universal City Studios, Inc</citetitle>. v. <citetitle>Sony "
5719 "Corp. of America</citetitle>, 659 F. 2d 963 (9th Cir. 1981)."
5722 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
5723 #: freeculture.xml:4239
5724 msgid "Kozinski, Alex"
5727 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5728 #: freeculture.xml:4224
5730 "It took eight years for this case to be resolved by the Supreme Court. In "
5731 "the interim, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes Hollywood in "
5732 "its jurisdiction—leading Judge Alex Kozinski, who sits on that court, "
5733 "refers to it as the <quote>Hollywood Circuit</quote>—held that Sony "
5734 "would be liable for the copyright infringement made possible by its "
5735 "machines. Under the Ninth Circuit's rule, this totally familiar "
5736 "technology—which Jack Valenti had called <quote>the Boston Strangler "
5737 "of the American film industry</quote> (worse yet, it was a "
5738 "<emphasis>Japanese</emphasis> Boston Strangler of the American film "
5739 "industry)—was an illegal technology.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
5740 "id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
5744 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5745 #: freeculture.xml:4242
5747 "But the Supreme Court reversed the decision of the Ninth Circuit. And in "
5748 "its reversal, the Court clearly articulated its understanding of when and "
5749 "whether courts should intervene in such disputes. As the Court wrote,"
5753 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
5754 #: freeculture.xml:4261
5756 "<citetitle>Sony Corp. of America</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Universal City "
5757 "Studios, Inc</citetitle>., 464 U.S. 417, 431 (1984)."
5760 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
5761 #: freeculture.xml:4251
5763 "Sound policy, as well as history, supports our consistent deference to "
5764 "Congress when major technological innovations alter the market for "
5765 "copyrighted materials. Congress has the constitutional authority and the "
5766 "institutional ability to accommodate fully the varied permutations of "
5767 "competing interests that are inevitably implicated by such new "
5768 "technology.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
5771 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5772 #: freeculture.xml:4266
5774 "Congress was asked to respond to the Supreme Court's decision. But as with "
5775 "the plea of recording artists about radio broadcasts, Congress ignored the "
5776 "request. Congress was convinced that American film got enough, this "
5777 "<quote>taking</quote> notwithstanding. If we put these cases together, a "
5781 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
5782 #: freeculture.xml:4277
5786 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
5787 #: freeculture.xml:4278
5788 msgid "WHOSE VALUE WAS <quote>PIRATED</quote>"
5791 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
5792 #: freeculture.xml:4279
5793 msgid "RESPONSE OF THE COURTS"
5796 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
5797 #: freeculture.xml:4280
5798 msgid "RESPONSE OF CONGRESS"
5801 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
5802 #: freeculture.xml:4285
5806 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
5807 #: freeculture.xml:4286
5811 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
5812 #: freeculture.xml:4287 freeculture.xml:4299 freeculture.xml:4305
5813 msgid "No protection"
5816 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
5817 #: freeculture.xml:4288 freeculture.xml:4300
5818 msgid "Statutory license"
5821 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
5822 #: freeculture.xml:4292
5823 msgid "Recording artists"
5826 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
5827 #: freeculture.xml:4293
5831 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
5832 #: freeculture.xml:4294 freeculture.xml:4306
5836 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
5837 #: freeculture.xml:4298
5838 msgid "Broadcasters"
5841 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
5842 #: freeculture.xml:4303
5846 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
5847 #: freeculture.xml:4304
5848 msgid "Film creators"
5851 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5852 #: freeculture.xml:4316
5854 "These are the most important instances in our history, but there are other "
5855 "cases as well. The technology of digital audio tape (DAT), for example, was "
5856 "regulated by Congress to minimize the risk of piracy. The remedy Congress "
5857 "imposed did burden DAT producers, by taxing tape sales and controlling the "
5858 "technology of DAT. See Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 (Title 17 of the "
5859 "<citetitle>United States Code</citetitle>), Pub. L. No. 102-563, 106 Stat. "
5860 "4237, codified at 17 U.S.C. §1001. Again, however, this regulation did not "
5861 "eliminate the opportunity for free riding in the sense I've described. See "
5862 "Lessig, <citetitle>Future</citetitle>, 71. See also Picker, <quote>From "
5863 "Edison to the Broadcast Flag,</quote> <citetitle>University of Chicago Law "
5864 "Review</citetitle> 70 (2003): 293–96. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
5865 "id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
5868 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5869 #: freeculture.xml:4313
5871 "In each case throughout our history, a new technology changed the way "
5872 "content was distributed.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> In each "
5873 "case, throughout our history, that change meant that someone got a "
5874 "<quote>free ride</quote> on someone else's work."
5878 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5879 #: freeculture.xml:4334
5881 "In <emphasis>none</emphasis> of these cases did either the courts or "
5882 "Congress eliminate all free riding. In <emphasis>none</emphasis> of these "
5883 "cases did the courts or Congress insist that the law should assure that the "
5884 "copyright holder get all the value that his copyright created. In every "
5885 "case, the copyright owners complained of <quote>piracy.</quote> In every "
5886 "case, Congress acted to recognize some of the legitimacy in the behavior of "
5887 "the <quote>pirates.</quote> In each case, Congress allowed some new "
5888 "technology to benefit from content made before. It balanced the interests at "
5892 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5893 #: freeculture.xml:4346
5895 "When you think across these examples, and the other examples that make up "
5896 "the first four chapters of this section, this balance makes sense. Was Walt "
5897 "Disney a pirate? Would doujinshi be better if creators had to ask "
5898 "permission? Should tools that enable others to capture and spread images as "
5899 "a way to cultivate or criticize our culture be better regulated? Is it "
5900 "really right that building a search engine should expose you to $15 million "
5901 "in damages? Would it have been better if Edison had controlled film? Should "
5902 "every cover band have to hire a lawyer to get permission to record a song?"
5906 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5907 #: freeculture.xml:4363
5909 "<citetitle>Sony Corp. of America</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Universal City "
5910 "Studios, Inc</citetitle>., 464 U.S. 417, (1984)."
5913 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5914 #: freeculture.xml:4358
5916 "We could answer yes to each of these questions, but our tradition has "
5917 "answered no. In our tradition, as the Supreme Court has stated, copyright "
5918 "<quote>has never accorded the copyright owner complete control over all "
5919 "possible uses of his work.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
5920 "Instead, the particular uses that the law regulates have been defined by "
5921 "balancing the good that comes from granting an exclusive right against the "
5922 "burdens such an exclusive right creates. And this balancing has historically "
5923 "been done <emphasis>after</emphasis> a technology has matured, or settled "
5924 "into the mix of technologies that facilitate the distribution of content."
5927 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5928 #: freeculture.xml:4374
5930 "We should be doing the same thing today. The technology of the Internet is "
5931 "changing quickly. The way people connect to the Internet (wires "
5932 "vs. wireless) is changing very quickly. No doubt the network should not "
5933 "become a tool for <quote>stealing</quote> from artists. But neither should "
5934 "the law become a tool to entrench one particular way in which artists (or "
5935 "more accurately, distributors) get paid. As I describe in some detail in the "
5936 "last chapter of this book, we should be securing income to artists while we "
5937 "allow the market to secure the most efficient way to promote and distribute "
5938 "content. This will require changes in the law, at least in the "
5939 "interim. These changes should be designed to balance the protection of the "
5940 "law against the strong public interest that innovation continue."
5944 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5945 #: freeculture.xml:4398
5947 "John Schwartz, <quote>New Economy: The Attack on Peer-to-Peer Software "
5948 "Echoes Past Efforts,</quote> <citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 22 "
5949 "September 2003, C3."
5952 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5953 #: freeculture.xml:4390
5955 "This is especially true when a new technology enables a vastly superior mode "
5956 "of distribution. And this p2p has done. P2p technologies can be ideally "
5957 "efficient in moving content across a widely diverse network. Left to "
5958 "develop, they could make the network vastly more efficient. Yet these "
5959 "<quote>potential public benefits,</quote> as John Schwartz writes in "
5960 "<citetitle>The New York Times</citetitle>, <quote>could be delayed in the "
5961 "P2P fight.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
5964 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5965 #: freeculture.xml:4403
5967 "<emphasis role='strong'>Yet when anyone</emphasis> begins to talk about "
5968 "<quote>balance,</quote> the copyright warriors raise a different "
5969 "argument. <quote>All this hand waving about balance and incentives,</quote> "
5970 "they say, <quote>misses a fundamental point. Our content,</quote> the "
5971 "warriors insist, <quote>is our <emphasis>property</emphasis>. Why should we "
5972 "wait for Congress to `rebalance' our property rights? Do you have to wait "
5973 "before calling the police when your car has been stolen? And why should "
5974 "Congress deliberate at all about the merits of this theft? Do we ask whether "
5975 "the car thief had a good use for the car before we arrest him?</quote>"
5978 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5979 #: freeculture.xml:4415
5981 "<quote>It is <emphasis>our property</emphasis>,</quote> the warriors "
5982 "insist. <quote>And it should be protected just as any other property is "
5983 "protected.</quote>"
5986 #. type: Content of: <book><part><title>
5987 #: freeculture.xml:4424
5988 msgid "<quote>PROPERTY</quote>"
5992 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
5993 #: freeculture.xml:4429
5995 "<emphasis role='strong'>The copyright warriors</emphasis> are right: A "
5996 "copyright is a kind of property. It can be owned and sold, and the law "
5997 "protects against its theft. Ordinarily, the copyright owner gets to hold out "
5998 "for any price he wants. Markets reckon the supply and demand that partially "
5999 "determine the price she can get."
6002 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
6003 #: freeculture.xml:4436
6005 "But in ordinary language, to call a copyright a <quote>property</quote> "
6006 "right is a bit misleading, for the property of copyright is an odd kind of "
6007 "property. Indeed, the very idea of property in any idea or any expression "
6008 "is very odd. I understand what I am taking when I take the picnic table you "
6009 "put in your backyard. I am taking a thing, the picnic table, and after I "
6010 "take it, you don't have it. But what am I taking when I take the good "
6011 "<emphasis>idea</emphasis> you had to put a picnic table in the "
6012 "backyard—by, for example, going to Sears, buying a table, and putting "
6013 "it in my backyard? What is the thing I am taking then?"
6017 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para>
6018 #: freeculture.xml:4461
6020 "Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Isaac McPherson (13 August 1813) in "
6021 "<citetitle>The Writings of Thomas Jefferson</citetitle>, vol. 6 (Andrew "
6022 "A. Lipscomb and Albert Ellery Bergh, eds., 1903), 330, 333–34."
6025 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
6026 #: freeculture.xml:4448
6028 "The point is not just about the thingness of picnic tables versus ideas, "
6029 "though that's an important difference. The point instead is that in the "
6030 "ordinary case—indeed, in practically every case except for a narrow "
6031 "range of exceptions—ideas released to the world are free. I don't take "
6032 "anything from you when I copy the way you dress—though I might seem "
6033 "weird if I did it every day, and especially weird if you are a "
6034 "woman. Instead, as Thomas Jefferson said (and as is especially true when I "
6035 "copy the way someone else dresses), <quote>He who receives an idea from me, "
6036 "receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his "
6037 "taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.</quote><placeholder "
6038 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
6041 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
6042 #: freeculture.xml:4467
6044 "The exceptions to free use are ideas and expressions within the reach of the "
6045 "law of patent and copyright, and a few other domains that I won't discuss "
6046 "here. Here the law says you can't take my idea or expression without my "
6047 "permission: The law turns the intangible into property."
6051 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para>
6052 #: freeculture.xml:4480
6054 "As the legal realists taught American law, all property rights are "
6055 "intangible. A property right is simply a right that an individual has "
6056 "against the world to do or not do certain things that may or may not attach "
6057 "to a physical object. The right itself is intangible, even if the object to "
6058 "which it is (metaphorically) attached is tangible. See Adam Mossoff, "
6059 "<quote>What Is Property? Putting the Pieces Back Together,</quote> "
6060 "<citetitle>Arizona Law Review</citetitle> 45 (2003): 373, 429 n. 241."
6063 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
6064 #: freeculture.xml:4475
6066 "But how, and to what extent, and in what form—the details, in other "
6067 "words—matter. To get a good sense of how this practice of turning the "
6068 "intangible into property emerged, we need to place this "
6069 "<quote>property</quote> in its proper context.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
6073 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
6074 #: freeculture.xml:4490
6076 "My strategy in doing this will be the same as my strategy in the preceding "
6077 "part. I offer four stories to help put the idea of <quote>copyright material "
6078 "is property</quote> in context. Where did the idea come from? What are its "
6079 "limits? How does it function in practice? After these stories, the "
6080 "significance of this true statement—<quote>copyright material is "
6081 "property</quote>— will be a bit more clear, and its implications will "
6082 "be revealed as quite different from the implications that the copyright "
6083 "warriors would have us draw."
6086 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
6087 #: freeculture.xml:4503
6088 msgid "CHAPTER SIX: Founders"
6091 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6092 #: freeculture.xml:4504
6096 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6097 #: freeculture.xml:4505 freeculture.xml:4652
6098 msgid "Branagh, Kenneth"
6101 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
6102 #: freeculture.xml:4508
6103 msgid "English copyright law developed for"
6106 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6107 #: freeculture.xml:4511
6109 "<emphasis role='strong'>William Shakespeare</emphasis> wrote "
6110 "<citetitle>Romeo and Juliet</citetitle> in 1595. The play was first "
6111 "published in 1597. It was the eleventh major play that Shakespeare had "
6112 "written. He would continue to write plays through 1613, and the plays that "
6113 "he wrote have continued to define Anglo-American culture ever since. So "
6114 "deeply have the works of a sixteenth-century writer seeped into our culture "
6115 "that we often don't even recognize their source. I once overheard someone "
6116 "commenting on Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of Henry V: <quote>I liked it, "
6117 "but Shakespeare is so full of clichés.</quote>"
6120 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
6121 #: freeculture.xml:4527
6125 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
6126 #: freeculture.xml:4528
6127 msgid "Dryden, John"
6130 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6131 #: freeculture.xml:4527
6133 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
6134 "id=\"1\"/> Jacob Tonson is typically remembered for his associations with "
6135 "prominent eighteenth-century literary figures, especially John Dryden, and "
6136 "for his handsome <quote>definitive editions</quote> of classic works. In "
6137 "addition to <citetitle>Romeo and Juliet</citetitle>, he published an "
6138 "astonishing array of works that still remain at the heart of the English "
6139 "canon, including collected works of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, John Milton, "
6140 "and John Dryden. See Keith Walker, <quote>Jacob Tonson, Bookseller,</quote> "
6141 "<citetitle>American Scholar</citetitle> 61:3 (1992): 424–31."
6145 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6146 #: freeculture.xml:4540
6148 "Lyman Ray Patterson, <citetitle>Copyright in Historical "
6149 "Perspective</citetitle> (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1968), "
6154 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6155 #: freeculture.xml:4523
6157 "In 1774, almost 180 years after <citetitle>Romeo and Juliet</citetitle> was "
6158 "written, the <quote>copy-right</quote> for the work was still thought by "
6159 "many to be the exclusive right of a single London publisher, Jacob "
6160 "Tonson.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Tonson was the most "
6161 "prominent of a small group of publishers called the Conger<placeholder "
6162 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> who controlled bookselling in England during "
6163 "the eighteenth century. The Conger claimed a perpetual right to control the "
6164 "<quote>copy</quote> of books that they had acquired from authors. That "
6165 "perpetual right meant that no one else could publish copies of a book to "
6166 "which they held the copyright. Prices of the classics were thus kept high; "
6167 "competition to produce better or cheaper editions was eliminated."
6170 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6171 #: freeculture.xml:4562
6173 "As Siva Vaidhyanathan nicely argues, it is erroneous to call this a "
6174 "<quote>copyright law.</quote> See Vaidhyanathan, <citetitle>Copyrights and "
6175 "Copywrongs</citetitle>, 40. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
6178 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6179 #: freeculture.xml:4553
6181 "Now, there's something puzzling about the year 1774 to anyone who knows a "
6182 "little about copyright law. The better-known year in the history of "
6183 "copyright is 1710, the year that the British Parliament adopted the first "
6184 "<quote>copyright</quote> act. Known as the Statute of Anne, the act stated "
6185 "that all published works would get a copyright term of fourteen years, "
6186 "renewable once if the author was alive, and that all works already published "
6187 "by 1710 would get a single term of twenty-one additional years.<placeholder "
6188 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Under this law, <citetitle>Romeo and "
6189 "Juliet</citetitle> should have been free in 1731. So why was there any issue "
6190 "about it still being under Tonson's control in 1774?"
6193 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
6194 #: freeculture.xml:4579
6195 msgid "Licensing Act (1662)"
6198 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6199 #: freeculture.xml:4570
6201 "The reason is that the English hadn't yet agreed on what a "
6202 "<quote>copyright</quote> was—indeed, no one had. At the time the "
6203 "English passed the Statute of Anne, there was no other legislation governing "
6204 "copyrights. The last law regulating publishers, the Licensing Act of 1662, "
6205 "had expired in 1695. That law gave publishers a monopoly over publishing, as "
6206 "a way to make it easier for the Crown to control what was published. But "
6207 "after it expired, there was no positive law that said that the publishers, "
6208 "or <quote>Stationers,</quote> had an exclusive right to print books. "
6209 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
6212 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6213 #: freeculture.xml:4582
6215 "There was no <emphasis>positive</emphasis> law, but that didn't mean that "
6216 "there was no law. The Anglo-American legal tradition looks to both the words "
6217 "of legislatures and the words of judges to know the rules that are to govern "
6218 "how people are to behave. We call the words from legislatures "
6219 "<quote>positive law.</quote> We call the words from judges <quote>common "
6220 "law.</quote> The common law sets the background against which legislatures "
6221 "legislate; the legislature, ordinarily, can trump that background only if it "
6222 "passes a law to displace it. And so the real question after the licensing "
6223 "statutes had expired was whether the common law protected a copyright, "
6224 "independent of any positive law."
6228 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6229 #: freeculture.xml:4594
6231 "This question was important to the publishers, or "
6232 "<quote>booksellers,</quote> as they were called, because there was growing "
6233 "competition from foreign publishers. The Scottish, in particular, were "
6234 "increasingly publishing and exporting books to England. That competition "
6235 "reduced the profits of the Conger, which reacted by demanding that "
6236 "Parliament pass a law to again give them exclusive control over "
6237 "publishing. That demand ultimately resulted in the Statute of Anne."
6240 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6241 #: freeculture.xml:4606
6243 "The Statute of Anne granted the author or <quote>proprietor</quote> of a "
6244 "book an exclusive right to print that book. In an important limitation, "
6245 "however, and to the horror of the booksellers, the law gave the bookseller "
6246 "that right for a limited term. At the end of that term, the copyright "
6247 "<quote>expired,</quote> and the work would then be free and could be "
6248 "published by anyone. Or so the legislature is thought to have believed."
6251 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6252 #: freeculture.xml:4615
6254 "Now, the thing to puzzle about for a moment is this: Why would Parliament "
6255 "limit the exclusive right? Not why would they limit it to the particular "
6256 "limit they set, but why would they limit the right <emphasis>at "
6260 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6261 #: freeculture.xml:4621
6263 "For the booksellers, and the authors whom they represented, had a very "
6264 "strong claim. Take <citetitle>Romeo and Juliet</citetitle> as an example: "
6265 "That play was written by Shakespeare. It was his genius that brought it into "
6266 "the world. He didn't take anybody's property when he created this play "
6267 "(that's a controversial claim, but never mind), and by his creating this "
6268 "play, he didn't make it any harder for others to craft a play. So why is it "
6269 "that the law would ever allow someone else to come along and take "
6270 "Shakespeare's play without his, or his estate's, permission? What reason is "
6271 "there to allow someone else to <quote>steal</quote> Shakespeare's work?"
6274 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6275 #: freeculture.xml:4632
6277 "The answer comes in two parts. We first need to see something special about "
6278 "the notion of <quote>copyright</quote> that existed at the time of the "
6279 "Statute of Anne. Second, we have to see something important about "
6280 "<quote>booksellers.</quote>"
6284 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6285 #: freeculture.xml:4638
6287 "First, about copyright. In the last three hundred years, we have come to "
6288 "apply the concept of <quote>copyright</quote> ever more broadly. But in "
6289 "1710, it wasn't so much a concept as it was a very particular right. The "
6290 "copyright was born as a very specific set of restrictions: It forbade others "
6291 "from reprinting a book. In 1710, the <quote>copy-right</quote> was a right "
6292 "to use a particular machine to replicate a particular work. It did not go "
6293 "beyond that very narrow right. It did not control any more generally how a "
6294 "work could be <emphasis>used</emphasis>. Today the right includes a large "
6295 "collection of restrictions on the freedom of others: It grants the author "
6296 "the exclusive right to copy, the exclusive right to distribute, the "
6297 "exclusive right to perform, and so on."
6300 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6301 #: freeculture.xml:4654
6303 "So, for example, even if the copyright to Shakespeare's works were "
6304 "perpetual, all that would have meant under the original meaning of the term "
6305 "was that no one could reprint Shakespeare's work without the permission of "
6306 "the Shakespeare estate. It would not have controlled anything, for example, "
6307 "about how the work could be performed, whether the work could be translated, "
6308 "or whether Kenneth Branagh would be allowed to make his films. The "
6309 "<quote>copy-right</quote> was only an exclusive right to print—no "
6310 "less, of course, but also no more."
6313 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6314 #: freeculture.xml:4663
6315 msgid "Henry VIII, King of England"
6318 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6319 #: freeculture.xml:4664
6320 msgid "Statute of Monopolies (1656)"
6323 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6324 #: freeculture.xml:4666
6326 "Even that limited right was viewed with skepticism by the British. They had "
6327 "had a long and ugly experience with <quote>exclusive rights,</quote> "
6328 "especially <quote>exclusive rights</quote> granted by the Crown. The English "
6329 "had fought a civil war in part about the Crown's practice of handing out "
6330 "monopolies—especially monopolies for works that already existed. King "
6331 "Henry VIII granted a patent to print the Bible and a monopoly to Darcy to "
6332 "print playing cards. The English Parliament began to fight back against this "
6333 "power of the Crown. In 1656, it passed the Statute of Monopolies, limiting "
6334 "monopolies to patents for new inventions. And by 1710, Parliament was eager "
6335 "to deal with the growing monopoly in publishing."
6338 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6339 #: freeculture.xml:4679
6341 "Thus the <quote>copy-right,</quote> when viewed as a monopoly right, was "
6342 "naturally viewed as a right that should be limited. (However convincing the "
6343 "claim that <quote>it's my property, and I should have it forever,</quote> "
6344 "try sounding convincing when uttering, <quote>It's my monopoly, and I should "
6345 "have it forever.</quote>) The state would protect the exclusive right, but "
6346 "only so long as it benefited society. The British saw the harms from "
6347 "specialinterest favors; they passed a law to stop them."
6351 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6352 #: freeculture.xml:4703
6354 "Philip Wittenberg, <citetitle>The Protection and Marketing of Literary "
6355 "Property</citetitle> (New York: J. Messner, Inc., 1937), 31."
6358 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6359 #: freeculture.xml:4688
6361 "Second, about booksellers. It wasn't just that the copyright was a "
6362 "monopoly. It was also that it was a monopoly held by the booksellers. "
6363 "Booksellers sound quaint and harmless to us. They were not viewed as "
6364 "harmless in seventeenth-century England. Members of the Conger were "
6365 "increasingly seen as monopolists of the worst kind—tools of the "
6366 "Crown's repression, selling the liberty of England to guarantee themselves a "
6367 "monopoly profit. The attacks against these monopolists were harsh: Milton "
6368 "described them as <quote>old patentees and monopolizers in the trade of "
6369 "book-selling</quote>; they were <quote>men who do not therefore labour in an "
6370 "honest profession to which learning is indetted.</quote><placeholder "
6371 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
6374 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6375 #: freeculture.xml:4708
6377 "Many believed the power the booksellers exercised over the spread of "
6378 "knowledge was harming that spread, just at the time the Enlightenment was "
6379 "teaching the importance of education and knowledge spread generally. The "
6380 "idea that knowledge should be free was a hallmark of the time, and these "
6381 "powerful commercial interests were interfering with that idea."
6384 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6385 #: freeculture.xml:4716
6387 "To balance this power, Parliament decided to increase competition among "
6388 "booksellers, and the simplest way to do that was to spread the wealth of "
6389 "valuable books. Parliament therefore limited the term of copyrights, and "
6390 "thereby guaranteed that valuable books would become open to any publisher to "
6391 "publish after a limited time. Thus the setting of the term for existing "
6392 "works to just twenty-one years was a compromise to fight the power of the "
6393 "booksellers. The limitation on terms was an indirect way to assure "
6394 "competition among publishers, and thus the construction and spread of "
6398 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6399 #: freeculture.xml:4728
6401 "When 1731 (1710 + 21) came along, however, the booksellers were getting "
6402 "anxious. They saw the consequences of more competition, and like every "
6403 "competitor, they didn't like them. At first booksellers simply ignored the "
6404 "Statute of Anne, continuing to insist on the perpetual right to control "
6405 "publication. But in 1735 and 1737, they tried to persuade Parliament to "
6406 "extend their terms. Twenty-one years was not enough, they said; they needed "
6410 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6411 #: freeculture.xml:4737
6413 "Parliament rejected their requests. As one pamphleteer put it, in words that "
6418 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
6419 #: freeculture.xml:4752
6421 "A Letter to a Member of Parliament concerning the Bill now depending in the "
6422 "House of Commons, for making more effectual an Act in the Eighth Year of the "
6423 "Reign of Queen Anne, entitled, An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by "
6424 "Vesting the Copies of Printed Books in the Authors or Purchasers of such "
6425 "Copies, during the Times therein mentioned (London, 1735), in Brief Amici "
6426 "Curiae of Tyler T. Ochoa et al., 8, <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
6427 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, 537 U.S. 186 (2003) (No. 01-618)."
6430 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
6431 #: freeculture.xml:4742
6433 "I see no Reason for granting a further Term now, which will not hold as well "
6434 "for granting it again and again, as often as the Old ones Expire; so that "
6435 "should this Bill pass, it will in Effect be establishing a perpetual "
6436 "Monopoly, a Thing deservedly odious in the Eye of the Law; it will be a "
6437 "great Cramp to Trade, a Discouragement to Learning, no Benefit to the "
6438 "Authors, but a general Tax on the Publick; and all this only to increase the "
6439 "private Gain of the Booksellers.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
6442 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6443 #: freeculture.xml:4763
6445 "Having failed in Parliament, the publishers turned to the courts in a series "
6446 "of cases. Their argument was simple and direct: The Statute of Anne gave "
6447 "authors certain protections through positive law, but those protections were "
6448 "not intended as replacements for the common law. Instead, they were "
6449 "intended simply to supplement the common law. Under common law, it was "
6450 "already wrong to take another person's creative <quote>property</quote> and "
6451 "use it without his permission. The Statute of Anne, the booksellers argued, "
6452 "didn't change that. Therefore, just because the protections of the Statute "
6453 "of Anne expired, that didn't mean the protections of the common law expired: "
6454 "Under the common law they had the right to ban the publication of a book, "
6455 "even if its Statute of Anne copyright had expired. This, they argued, was "
6456 "the only way to protect authors."
6459 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6460 #: freeculture.xml:4784
6462 "Lyman Ray Patterson, <quote>Free Speech, Copyright, and Fair Use,</quote> "
6463 "<citetitle>Vanderbilt Law Review</citetitle> 40 (1987): 28. For a "
6464 "wonderfully compelling account, see Vaidhyanathan, 37–48. "
6465 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
6468 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6469 #: freeculture.xml:4778
6471 "This was a clever argument, and one that had the support of some of the "
6472 "leading jurists of the day. It also displayed extraordinary chutzpah. Until "
6473 "then, as law professor Raymond Patterson has put it, <quote>The publishers "
6474 "… had as much concern for authors as a cattle rancher has for "
6475 "cattle.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The bookseller "
6476 "didn't care squat for the rights of the author. His concern was the "
6477 "monopoly profit that the author's work gave."
6481 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6482 #: freeculture.xml:4797
6484 "For a compelling account, see David Saunders, <citetitle>Authorship and "
6485 "Copyright</citetitle> (London: Routledge, 1992), 62–69."
6488 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6489 #: freeculture.xml:4793
6491 "The booksellers' argument was not accepted without a fight. The hero of "
6492 "this fight was a Scottish bookseller named Alexander Donaldson.<placeholder "
6493 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
6496 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6497 #: freeculture.xml:4809 freeculture.xml:14893
6501 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6502 #: freeculture.xml:4807
6504 "Mark Rose, <citetitle>Authors and Owners</citetitle> (Cambridge: Harvard "
6505 "University Press, 1993), 92. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
6509 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6510 #: freeculture.xml:4818
6514 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
6515 #: freeculture.xml:4820
6516 msgid "Boswell, James"
6519 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
6520 #: freeculture.xml:4821
6521 msgid "Erskine, Andrew"
6524 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6525 #: freeculture.xml:4802
6527 "Donaldson was an outsider to the London Conger. He began his career in "
6528 "Edinburgh in 1750. The focus of his business was inexpensive reprints "
6529 "<quote>of standard works whose copyright term had expired,</quote> at least "
6530 "under the Statute of Anne.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
6531 "Donaldson's publishing house prospered and became <quote>something of a "
6532 "center for literary Scotsmen.</quote> <quote>[A]mong them,</quote> Professor "
6533 "Mark Rose writes, was <quote>the young James Boswell who, together with his "
6534 "friend Andrew Erskine, published an anthology of contemporary Scottish poems "
6535 "with Donaldson.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> "
6536 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
6541 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6542 #: freeculture.xml:4830
6544 "Lyman Ray Patterson, <citetitle>Copyright in Historical "
6545 "Perspective</citetitle>, 167 (quoting Borwell)."
6548 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6549 #: freeculture.xml:4824
6551 "When the London booksellers tried to shut down Donaldson's shop in Scotland, "
6552 "he responded by moving his shop to London, where he sold inexpensive "
6553 "editions <quote>of the most popular English books, in defiance of the "
6554 "supposed common law right of Literary Property.</quote><placeholder "
6555 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> His books undercut the Conger prices by 30 to "
6556 "50 percent, and he rested his right to compete upon the ground that, under "
6557 "the Statute of Anne, the works he was selling had passed out of protection."
6560 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6561 #: freeculture.xml:4838
6563 "The London booksellers quickly brought suit to block <quote>piracy</quote> "
6564 "like Donaldson's. A number of actions were successful against the "
6565 "<quote>pirates,</quote> the most important early victory being "
6566 "<citetitle>Millar</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Taylor</citetitle>."
6569 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6570 #: freeculture.xml:4842
6571 msgid "Taylor, Robert"
6575 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6576 #: freeculture.xml:4851
6578 "Howard B. Abrams, <quote>The Historic Foundation of American Copyright Law: "
6579 "Exploding the Myth of Common Law Copyright,</quote> <citetitle>Wayne Law "
6580 "Review</citetitle> 29 (1983): 1152."
6583 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6584 #: freeculture.xml:4844
6586 "Millar was a bookseller who in 1729 had purchased the rights to James "
6587 "Thomson's poem <quote>The Seasons.</quote> Millar complied with the "
6588 "requirements of the Statute of Anne, and therefore received the full "
6589 "protection of the statute. After the term of copyright ended, Robert Taylor "
6590 "began printing a competing volume. Millar sued, claiming a perpetual common "
6591 "law right, the Statute of Anne notwithstanding.<placeholder "
6592 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
6595 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6596 #: freeculture.xml:4860
6598 "Astonishingly to modern lawyers, one of the greatest judges in English "
6599 "history, Lord Mansfield, agreed with the booksellers. Whatever protection "
6600 "the Statute of Anne gave booksellers, it did not, he held, extinguish any "
6601 "common law right. The question was whether the common law would protect the "
6602 "author against subsequent <quote>pirates.</quote> Mansfield's answer was "
6603 "yes: The common law would bar Taylor from reprinting Thomson's poem without "
6604 "Millar's permission. That common law rule thus effectively gave the "
6605 "booksellers a perpetual right to control the publication of any book "
6610 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6611 #: freeculture.xml:4871
6613 "Considered as a matter of abstract justice—reasoning as if justice "
6614 "were just a matter of logical deduction from first "
6615 "principles—Mansfield's conclusion might make some sense. But what it "
6616 "ignored was the larger issue that Parliament had struggled with in 1710: How "
6617 "best to limit the monopoly power of publishers? Parliament's strategy was to "
6618 "offer a term for existing works that was long enough to buy peace in 1710, "
6619 "but short enough to assure that culture would pass into competition within a "
6620 "reasonable period of time. Within twenty-one years, Parliament believed, "
6621 "Britain would mature from the controlled culture that the Crown coveted to "
6622 "the free culture that we inherited."
6625 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6626 #: freeculture.xml:4886
6628 "The fight to defend the limits of the Statute of Anne was not to end there, "
6629 "however, and it is here that Donaldson enters the mix."
6632 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6633 #: freeculture.xml:4889
6634 msgid "Beckett, Thomas"
6638 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6639 #: freeculture.xml:4895
6640 msgid "Ibid., 1156."
6643 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6644 #: freeculture.xml:4891
6646 "Millar died soon after his victory, so his case was not appealed. His estate "
6647 "sold Thomson's poems to a syndicate of printers that included Thomas "
6648 "Beckett.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Donaldson then released an "
6649 "unauthorized edition of Thomson's works. Beckett, on the strength of the "
6650 "decision in <citetitle>Millar</citetitle>, got an injunction against "
6651 "Donaldson. Donaldson appealed the case to the House of Lords, which "
6652 "functioned much like our own Supreme Court. In February of 1774, that body "
6653 "had the chance to interpret the meaning of Parliament's limits from sixty "
6657 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6658 #: freeculture.xml:4905
6660 "As few legal cases ever do, <citetitle>Donaldson</citetitle> "
6661 "v. <citetitle>Beckett</citetitle> drew an enormous amount of attention "
6662 "throughout Britain. Donaldson's lawyers argued that whatever rights may have "
6663 "existed under the common law, the Statute of Anne terminated those "
6664 "rights. After passage of the Statute of Anne, the only legal protection for "
6665 "an exclusive right to control publication came from that statute. Thus, they "
6666 "argued, after the term specified in the Statute of Anne expired, works that "
6667 "had been protected by the statute were no longer protected."
6670 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6671 #: freeculture.xml:4915
6673 "The House of Lords was an odd institution. Legal questions were presented to "
6674 "the House and voted upon first by the <quote>law lords,</quote> members of "
6675 "special legal distinction who functioned much like the Justices in our "
6676 "Supreme Court. Then, after the law lords voted, the House of Lords generally "
6681 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6682 #: freeculture.xml:4922
6684 "The reports about the law lords' votes are mixed. On some counts, it looks "
6685 "as if perpetual copyright prevailed. But there is no ambiguity about how the "
6686 "House of Lords voted as whole. By a two-to-one majority (22 to 11) they "
6687 "voted to reject the idea of perpetual copyrights. Whatever one's "
6688 "understanding of the common law, now a copyright was fixed for a limited "
6689 "time, after which the work protected by copyright passed into the public "
6693 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
6694 #: freeculture.xml:4940
6695 msgid "Bacon, Francis"
6698 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
6699 #: freeculture.xml:4941
6700 msgid "Bunyan, John"
6703 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
6704 #: freeculture.xml:4942
6705 msgid "Johnson, Samuel"
6708 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
6709 #: freeculture.xml:4943
6710 msgid "Milton, John"
6713 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
6714 #: freeculture.xml:4944
6715 msgid "Shakespeare, William"
6718 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6719 #: freeculture.xml:4932
6721 "<quote>The public domain.</quote> Before the case of "
6722 "<citetitle>Donaldson</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Beckett</citetitle>, there "
6723 "was no clear idea of a public domain in England. Before 1774, there was a "
6724 "strong argument that common law copyrights were perpetual. After 1774, the "
6725 "public domain was born. For the first time in Anglo-American history, the "
6726 "legal control over creative works expired, and the greatest works in English "
6727 "history—including those of Shakespeare, Bacon, Milton, Johnson, and "
6728 "Bunyan—were free of legal restraint. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
6729 "id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> <placeholder "
6730 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/> "
6731 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"4\"/>"
6735 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6736 #: freeculture.xml:4957
6740 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6741 #: freeculture.xml:4947
6743 "It is hard for us to imagine, but this decision by the House of Lords fueled "
6744 "an extraordinarily popular and political reaction. In Scotland, where most "
6745 "of the <quote>pirate publishers</quote> did their work, people celebrated "
6746 "the decision in the streets. As the <citetitle>Edinburgh "
6747 "Advertiser</citetitle> reported, <quote>No private cause has so much "
6748 "engrossed the attention of the public, and none has been tried before the "
6749 "House of Lords in the decision of which so many individuals were "
6750 "interested.</quote> <quote>Great rejoicing in Edinburgh upon victory over "
6751 "literary property: bonfires and illuminations.</quote><placeholder "
6752 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
6755 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6756 #: freeculture.xml:4961
6758 "In London, however, at least among publishers, the reaction was equally "
6759 "strong in the opposite direction. The <citetitle>Morning "
6760 "Chronicle</citetitle> reported:"
6763 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
6764 #: freeculture.xml:4967
6766 "By the above decision … near 200,000 pounds worth of what was "
6767 "honestly purchased at public sale, and which was yesterday thought property "
6768 "is now reduced to nothing. The Booksellers of London and Westminster, many "
6769 "of whom sold estates and houses to purchase Copy-right, are in a manner "
6770 "ruined, and those who after many years industry thought they had acquired a "
6771 "competency to provide for their families now find themselves without a "
6772 "shilling to devise to their successors.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
6777 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6778 #: freeculture.xml:4982
6780 "<quote>Ruined</quote> is a bit of an exaggeration. But it is not an "
6781 "exaggeration to say that the change was profound. The decision of the House "
6782 "of Lords meant that the booksellers could no longer control how culture in "
6783 "England would grow and develop. Culture in England was thereafter "
6784 "<emphasis>free</emphasis>. Not in the sense that copyrights would not be "
6785 "respected, for of course, for a limited time after a work was published, the "
6786 "bookseller had an exclusive right to control the publication of that "
6787 "book. And not in the sense that books could be stolen, for even after a "
6788 "copyright expired, you still had to buy the book from someone. But "
6789 "<emphasis>free</emphasis> in the sense that the culture and its growth would "
6790 "no longer be controlled by a small group of publishers. As every free market "
6791 "does, this free market of free culture would grow as the consumers and "
6792 "producers chose. English culture would develop as the many English readers "
6793 "chose to let it develop— chose in the books they bought and wrote; "
6794 "chose in the memes they repeated and endorsed. Chose in a "
6795 "<emphasis>competitive context</emphasis>, not a context in which the choices "
6796 "about what culture is available to people and how they get access to it are "
6797 "made by the few despite the wishes of the many."
6800 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6801 #: freeculture.xml:5003
6803 "At least, this was the rule in a world where the Parliament is antimonopoly, "
6804 "resistant to the protectionist pleas of publishers. In a world where the "
6805 "Parliament is more pliant, free culture would be less protected."
6808 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
6809 #: freeculture.xml:5012
6810 msgid "CHAPTER SEVEN: Recorders"
6813 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6814 #: freeculture.xml:5014
6816 "<emphasis role='strong'>Jon Else</emphasis> is a filmmaker. He is best known "
6817 "for his documentaries and has been very successful in spreading his art. He "
6818 "is also a teacher, and as a teacher myself, I envy the loyalty and "
6819 "admiration that his students feel for him. (I met, by accident, two of his "
6820 "students at a dinner party. He was their god.)"
6823 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6824 #: freeculture.xml:5021
6826 "Else worked on a documentary that I was involved in. At a break, he told me "
6827 "a story about the freedom to create with film in America today."
6830 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
6831 #: freeculture.xml:5032 freeculture.xml:5102
6832 msgid "San Francisco Opera"
6835 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6836 #: freeculture.xml:5026
6838 "In 1990, Else was working on a documentary about Wagner's Ring Cycle. The "
6839 "focus was stagehands at the San Francisco Opera. Stagehands are a "
6840 "particularly funny and colorful element of an opera. During a show, they "
6841 "hang out below the stage in the grips' lounge and in the lighting loft. They "
6842 "make a perfect contrast to the art on the stage. <placeholder "
6843 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
6847 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6848 #: freeculture.xml:5035
6850 "During one of the performances, Else was shooting some stagehands playing "
6851 "checkers. In one corner of the room was a television set. Playing on the "
6852 "television set, while the stagehands played checkers and the opera company "
6853 "played Wagner, was <citetitle>The Simpsons</citetitle>. As Else judged it, "
6854 "this touch of cartoon helped capture the flavor of what was special about "
6858 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6859 #: freeculture.xml:5044
6861 "Years later, when he finally got funding to complete the film, Else "
6862 "attempted to clear the rights for those few seconds of <citetitle>The "
6863 "Simpsons</citetitle>. For of course, those few seconds are copyrighted; and "
6864 "of course, to use copyrighted material you need the permission of the "
6865 "copyright owner, unless <quote>fair use</quote> or some other privilege "
6869 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
6870 #: freeculture.xml:5056 freeculture.xml:5064
6871 msgid "Gracie Films"
6874 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6875 #: freeculture.xml:5051
6877 "Else called <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> creator Matt Groening's office "
6878 "to get permission. Groening approved the shot. The shot was a "
6879 "four-and-a-halfsecond image on a tiny television set in the corner of the "
6880 "room. How could it hurt? Groening was happy to have it in the film, but he "
6881 "told Else to contact Gracie Films, the company that produces the program. "
6882 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
6885 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6886 #: freeculture.xml:5059
6888 "Gracie Films was okay with it, too, but they, like Groening, wanted to be "
6889 "careful. So they told Else to contact Fox, Gracie's parent company. Else "
6890 "called Fox and told them about the clip in the corner of the one room shot "
6891 "of the film. Matt Groening had already given permission, Else said. He was "
6892 "just confirming the permission with Fox. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
6896 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6897 #: freeculture.xml:5067
6899 "Then, as Else told me, <quote>two things happened. First we discovered "
6900 "… that Matt Groening doesn't own his own creation—or at least "
6901 "that someone [at Fox] believes he doesn't own his own creation.</quote> And "
6902 "second, Fox <quote>wanted ten thousand dollars as a licensing fee for us to "
6903 "use this four-point-five seconds of … entirely unsolicited "
6904 "<citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> which was in the corner of the shot.</quote>"
6907 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6908 #: freeculture.xml:5074
6909 msgid "Herrera, Rebecca"
6912 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6913 #: freeculture.xml:5076
6915 "Else was certain there was a mistake. He worked his way up to someone he "
6916 "thought was a vice president for licensing, Rebecca Herrera. He explained "
6917 "to her, <quote>There must be some mistake here. … We're asking for "
6918 "your educational rate on this.</quote> That was the educational rate, "
6919 "Herrera told Else. A day or so later, Else called again to confirm what he "
6924 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6925 #: freeculture.xml:5084
6927 "<quote>I wanted to make sure I had my facts straight,</quote> he told "
6928 "me. <quote>Yes, you have your facts straight,</quote> she said. It would "
6929 "cost $10,000 to use the clip of <citetitle>The Simpsons</citetitle> in the "
6930 "corner of a shot in a documentary film about Wagner's Ring Cycle. And then, "
6931 "astonishingly, Herrera told Else, <quote>And if you quote me, I'll turn you "
6932 "over to our attorneys.</quote> As an assistant to Herrera told Else later "
6933 "on, <quote>They don't give a shit. They just want the money.</quote>"
6936 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
6937 #: freeculture.xml:5103
6938 msgid "Day After Trinity, The"
6941 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6942 #: freeculture.xml:5096
6944 "Else didn't have the money to buy the right to replay what was playing on "
6945 "the television backstage at the San Francisco Opera. To reproduce this "
6946 "reality was beyond the documentary filmmaker's budget. At the very last "
6947 "minute before the film was to be released, Else digitally replaced the shot "
6948 "with a clip from another film that he had worked on, <citetitle>The Day "
6949 "After Trinity</citetitle>, from ten years before. <placeholder "
6950 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
6953 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6954 #: freeculture.xml:5106
6956 "There's no doubt that someone, whether Matt Groening or Fox, owns the "
6957 "copyright to <citetitle>The Simpsons</citetitle>. That copyright is their "
6958 "property. To use that copyrighted material thus sometimes requires the "
6959 "permission of the copyright owner. If the use that Else wanted to make of "
6960 "the <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> copyright were one of the uses "
6961 "restricted by the law, then he would need to get the permission of the "
6962 "copyright owner before he could use the work in that way. And in a free "
6963 "market, it is the owner of the copyright who gets to set the price for any "
6964 "use that the law says the owner gets to control."
6967 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6968 #: freeculture.xml:5117
6970 "For example, <quote>public performance</quote> is a use of <citetitle>The "
6971 "Simpsons</citetitle> that the copyright owner gets to control. If you take a "
6972 "selection of favorite episodes, rent a movie theater, and charge for tickets "
6973 "to come see <quote>My Favorite <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle>,</quote> then "
6974 "you need to get permission from the copyright owner. And the copyright owner "
6975 "(rightly, in my view) can charge whatever she wants—$10 or "
6976 "$1,000,000. That's her right, as set by the law."
6980 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6981 #: freeculture.xml:5129
6983 "For an excellent argument that such use is <quote>fair use,</quote> but that "
6984 "lawyers don't permit recognition that it is <quote>fair use,</quote> see "
6985 "Richard A. Posner with William F. Patry, <quote>Fair Use and Statutory "
6986 "Reform in the Wake of <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle></quote> (draft on file "
6987 "with author), University of Chicago Law School, 5 August 2003."
6990 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6991 #: freeculture.xml:5126
6993 "But when lawyers hear this story about Jon Else and Fox, their first thought "
6994 "is <quote>fair use.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Else's "
6995 "use of just 4.5 seconds of an indirect shot of a "
6996 "<citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> episode is clearly a fair use of "
6997 "<citetitle>The Simpsons</citetitle>—and fair use does not require the "
6998 "permission of anyone."
7002 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7003 #: freeculture.xml:5141
7005 "So I asked Else why he didn't just rely upon <quote>fair use.</quote> Here's "
7009 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
7010 #: freeculture.xml:5145
7012 "The <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> fiasco was for me a great lesson in the "
7013 "gulf between what lawyers find irrelevant in some abstract sense, and what "
7014 "is crushingly relevant in practice to those of us actually trying to make "
7015 "and broadcast documentaries. I never had any doubt that it was "
7016 "<quote>clearly fair use</quote> in an absolute legal sense. But I couldn't "
7017 "rely on the concept in any concrete way. Here's why:"
7021 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><para>
7022 #: freeculture.xml:5155
7024 "Before our films can be broadcast, the network requires that we buy Errors "
7025 "and Omissions insurance. The carriers require a detailed <quote>visual cue "
7026 "sheet</quote> listing the source and licensing status of each shot in the "
7027 "film. They take a dim view of <quote>fair use,</quote> and a claim of "
7028 "<quote>fair use</quote> can grind the application process to a halt."
7031 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><indexterm><primary>
7032 #: freeculture.xml:5162
7033 msgid "<citetitle>Star Wars</citetitle>"
7036 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><para><indexterm><primary>
7037 #: freeculture.xml:5174
7038 msgid "Lucas, George"
7041 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><para>
7042 #: freeculture.xml:5165
7044 "I probably never should have asked Matt Groening in the first place. But I "
7045 "knew (at least from folklore) that Fox had a history of tracking down and "
7046 "stopping unlicensed <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> usage, just as George "
7047 "Lucas had a very high profile litigating <citetitle>Star Wars</citetitle> "
7048 "usage. So I decided to play by the book, thinking that we would be granted "
7049 "free or cheap license to four seconds of <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle>. As "
7050 "a documentary producer working to exhaustion on a shoestring, the last thing "
7051 "I wanted was to risk legal trouble, even nuisance legal trouble, and even to "
7052 "defend a principle. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
7057 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><para>
7058 #: freeculture.xml:5178
7060 "I did, in fact, speak with one of your colleagues at Stanford Law School "
7061 "… who confirmed that it was fair use. He also confirmed that Fox "
7062 "would <quote>depose and litigate you to within an inch of your life,</quote> "
7063 "regardless of the merits of my claim. He made clear that it would boil down "
7064 "to who had the bigger legal department and the deeper pockets, me or them."
7068 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><para>
7069 #: freeculture.xml:5188
7071 "The question of fair use usually comes up at the end of the project, when we "
7072 "are up against a release deadline and out of money."
7075 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7076 #: freeculture.xml:5195
7078 "In theory, fair use means you need no permission. The theory therefore "
7079 "supports free culture and insulates against a permission culture. But in "
7080 "practice, fair use functions very differently. The fuzzy lines of the law, "
7081 "tied to the extraordinary liability if lines are crossed, means that the "
7082 "effective fair use for many types of creators is slight. The law has the "
7083 "right aim; practice has defeated the aim."
7086 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7087 #: freeculture.xml:5203
7089 "This practice shows just how far the law has come from its "
7090 "eighteenth-century roots. The law was born as a shield to protect "
7091 "publishers' profits against the unfair competition of a pirate. It has "
7092 "matured into a sword that interferes with any use, transformative or not."
7095 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
7096 #: freeculture.xml:5212
7097 msgid "CHAPTER EIGHT: Transformers"
7100 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7101 #: freeculture.xml:5213
7105 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
7106 #: freeculture.xml:5215 freeculture.xml:5281 freeculture.xml:5465 freeculture.xml:9952 freeculture.xml:14268
7110 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7111 #: freeculture.xml:5219
7113 "<emphasis role='strong'>In 1993</emphasis>, Alex Alben was a lawyer working "
7114 "at Starwave, Inc. Starwave was an innovative company founded by Microsoft "
7115 "cofounder Paul Allen to develop digital entertainment. Long before the "
7116 "Internet became popular, Starwave began investing in new technology for "
7117 "delivering entertainment in anticipation of the power of networks."
7120 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
7121 #: freeculture.xml:5228
7122 msgid "retrospective compilations on"
7125 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7126 #: freeculture.xml:5231
7128 "Alben had a special interest in new technology. He was intrigued by the "
7129 "emerging market for CD-ROM technology—not to distribute film, but to "
7130 "do things with film that otherwise would be very difficult. In 1993, he "
7131 "launched an initiative to develop a product to build retrospectives on the "
7132 "work of particular actors. The first actor chosen was Clint Eastwood. The "
7133 "idea was to showcase all of the work of Eastwood, with clips from his films "
7134 "and interviews with figures important to his career."
7137 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7138 #: freeculture.xml:5241
7140 "At that time, Eastwood had made more than fifty films, as an actor and as a "
7141 "director. Alben began with a series of interviews with Eastwood, asking him "
7142 "about his career. Because Starwave produced those interviews, it was free to "
7143 "include them on the CD."
7147 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7148 #: freeculture.xml:5248
7150 "That alone would not have made a very interesting product, so Starwave "
7151 "wanted to add content from the movies in Eastwood's career: posters, "
7152 "scripts, and other material relating to the films Eastwood made. Most of his "
7153 "career was spent at Warner Brothers, and so it was relatively easy to get "
7154 "permission for that content."
7157 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7158 #: freeculture.xml:5255
7160 "Then Alben and his team decided to include actual film clips. <quote>Our "
7161 "goal was that we were going to have a clip from every one of Eastwood's "
7162 "films,</quote> Alben told me. It was here that the problem arose. <quote>No "
7163 "one had ever really done this before,</quote> Alben explained. <quote>No one "
7164 "had ever tried to do this in the context of an artistic look at an actor's "
7168 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7169 #: freeculture.xml:5263
7171 "Alben brought the idea to Michael Slade, the CEO of Starwave. Slade asked, "
7172 "<quote>Well, what will it take?</quote>"
7175 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><secondary>
7176 #: freeculture.xml:5279
7177 msgid "publicity rights on images of"
7180 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7181 #: freeculture.xml:5273
7183 "Technically, the rights that Alben had to clear were mainly those of "
7184 "publicity—rights an artist has to control the commercial exploitation "
7185 "of his image. But these rights, too, burden <quote>Rip, Mix, Burn</quote> "
7186 "creativity, as this chapter evinces. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
7187 "id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
7190 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7191 #: freeculture.xml:5267
7193 "Alben replied, <quote>Well, we're going to have to clear rights from "
7194 "everyone who appears in these films, and the music and everything else that "
7195 "we want to use in these film clips.</quote> Slade said, <quote>Great! Go for "
7196 "it.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
7199 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7200 #: freeculture.xml:5285
7202 "The problem was that neither Alben nor Slade had any idea what clearing "
7203 "those rights would mean. Every actor in each of the films could have a claim "
7204 "to royalties for the reuse of that film. But CD- ROMs had not been specified "
7205 "in the contracts for the actors, so there was no clear way to know just what "
7206 "Starwave was to do."
7209 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7210 #: freeculture.xml:5292
7212 "I asked Alben how he dealt with the problem. With an obvious pride in his "
7213 "resourcefulness that obscured the obvious bizarreness of his tale, Alben "
7214 "recounted just what they did:"
7217 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
7218 #: freeculture.xml:5298
7220 "So we very mechanically went about looking up the film clips. We made some "
7221 "artistic decisions about what film clips to include—of course we were "
7222 "going to use the <quote>Make my day</quote> clip from <citetitle>Dirty "
7223 "Harry</citetitle>. But you then need to get the guy on the ground who's "
7224 "wiggling under the gun and you need to get his permission. And then you "
7225 "have to decide what you are going to pay him."
7229 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
7230 #: freeculture.xml:5307
7232 "We decided that it would be fair if we offered them the dayplayer rate for "
7233 "the right to reuse that performance. We're talking about a clip of less than "
7234 "a minute, but to reuse that performance in the CD-ROM the rate at the time "
7235 "was about $600. So we had to identify the people—some of them were "
7236 "hard to identify because in Eastwood movies you can't tell who's the guy "
7237 "crashing through the glass—is it the actor or is it the stuntman? And "
7238 "then we just, we put together a team, my assistant and some others, and we "
7239 "just started calling people."
7242 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7243 #: freeculture.xml:5318
7244 msgid "Sutherland, Donald"
7247 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7248 #: freeculture.xml:5320
7250 "Some actors were glad to help—Donald Sutherland, for example, followed "
7251 "up himself to be sure that the rights had been cleared. Others were "
7252 "dumbfounded at their good fortune. Alben would ask, <quote>Hey, can I pay "
7253 "you $600 or maybe if you were in two films, you know, $1,200?</quote> And "
7254 "they would say, <quote>Are you for real? Hey, I'd love to get "
7255 "$1,200.</quote> And some of course were a bit difficult (estranged ex-wives, "
7256 "in particular). But eventually, Alben and his team had cleared the rights to "
7257 "this retrospective CD-ROM on Clint Eastwood's career."
7260 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7261 #: freeculture.xml:5331
7263 "It was one <emphasis>year</emphasis> later—<quote>and even then we "
7264 "weren't sure whether we were totally in the clear.</quote>"
7267 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7268 #: freeculture.xml:5335
7270 "Alben is proud of his work. The project was the first of its kind and the "
7271 "only time he knew of that a team had undertaken such a massive project for "
7272 "the purpose of releasing a retrospective."
7275 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
7276 #: freeculture.xml:5341
7278 "Everyone thought it would be too hard. Everyone just threw up their hands "
7279 "and said, <quote>Oh, my gosh, a film, it's so many copyrights, there's the "
7280 "music, there's the screenplay, there's the director, there's the "
7281 "actors.</quote> But we just broke it down. We just put it into its "
7282 "constituent parts and said, <quote>Okay, there's this many actors, this many "
7283 "directors, … this many musicians,</quote> and we just went at it very "
7284 "systematically and cleared the rights."
7288 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7289 #: freeculture.xml:5353
7291 "And no doubt, the product itself was exceptionally good. Eastwood loved it, "
7292 "and it sold very well."
7295 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7296 #: freeculture.xml:5356
7297 msgid "Drucker, Peter"
7301 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7302 #: freeculture.xml:5364
7304 "U.S. Department of Commerce Office of Acquisition Management, "
7305 "<citetitle>Seven Steps to Performance-Based Services "
7306 "Acquisition</citetitle>, available at <ulink "
7307 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #22</ulink>."
7310 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7311 #: freeculture.xml:5358
7313 "But I pressed Alben about how weird it seems that it would have to take a "
7314 "year's work simply to clear rights. No doubt Alben had done this "
7315 "efficiently, but as Peter Drucker has famously quipped, <quote>There is "
7316 "nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at "
7317 "all.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Did it make sense, I "
7318 "asked Alben, that this is the way a new work has to be made?"
7321 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7322 #: freeculture.xml:5372
7324 "For, as he acknowledged, <quote>very few … have the time and "
7325 "resources, and the will to do this,</quote> and thus, very few such works "
7326 "would ever be made. Does it make sense, I asked him, from the standpoint of "
7327 "what anybody really thought they were ever giving rights for originally, "
7328 "that you would have to go clear rights for these kinds of clips?"
7331 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
7332 #: freeculture.xml:5380
7334 "I don't think so. When an actor renders a performance in a movie, he or she "
7335 "gets paid very well. … And then when 30 seconds of that performance "
7336 "is used in a new product that is a retrospective of somebody's career, I "
7337 "don't think that that person … should be compensated for that."
7340 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7341 #: freeculture.xml:5388
7343 "Or at least, is this <emphasis>how</emphasis> the artist should be "
7344 "compensated? Would it make sense, I asked, for there to be some kind of "
7345 "statutory license that someone could pay and be free to make derivative use "
7346 "of clips like this? Did it really make sense that a follow-on creator would "
7347 "have to track down every artist, actor, director, musician, and get explicit "
7348 "permission from each? Wouldn't a lot more be created if the legal part of "
7349 "the creative process could be made to be more clean?"
7353 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
7354 #: freeculture.xml:5399
7356 "Absolutely. I think that if there were some fair-licensing "
7357 "mechanism—where you weren't subject to hold-ups and you weren't "
7358 "subject to estranged former spouses—you'd see a lot more of this work, "
7359 "because it wouldn't be so daunting to try to put together a retrospective of "
7360 "someone's career and meaningfully illustrate it with lots of media from that "
7361 "person's career. You'd build in a cost as the producer of one of these "
7362 "things. You'd build in a cost of paying X dollars to the talent that "
7363 "performed. But it would be a known cost. That's the thing that trips "
7364 "everybody up and makes this kind of product hard to get off the ground. If "
7365 "you knew I have a hundred minutes of film in this product and it's going to "
7366 "cost me X, then you build your budget around it, and you can get investments "
7367 "and everything else that you need to produce it. But if you say, <quote>Oh, "
7368 "I want a hundred minutes of something and I have no idea what it's going to "
7369 "cost me, and a certain number of people are going to hold me up for "
7370 "money,</quote> then it becomes difficult to put one of these things "
7374 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7375 #: freeculture.xml:5419
7377 "Alben worked for a big company. His company was backed by some of the "
7378 "richest investors in the world. He therefore had authority and access that "
7379 "the average Web designer would not have. So if it took him a year, how long "
7380 "would it take someone else? And how much creativity is never made just "
7381 "because the costs of clearing the rights are so high?"
7384 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7385 #: freeculture.xml:5427
7387 "These costs are the burdens of a kind of regulation. Put on a Republican hat "
7388 "for a moment, and get angry for a bit. The government defines the scope of "
7389 "these rights, and the scope defined determines how much it's going to cost "
7390 "to negotiate them. (Remember the idea that land runs to the heavens, and "
7391 "imagine the pilot purchasing flythrough rights as he negotiates to fly from "
7392 "Los Angeles to San Francisco.) These rights might well have once made "
7393 "sense; but as circumstances change, they make no sense at all. Or at least, "
7394 "a well-trained, regulationminimizing Republican should look at the rights "
7395 "and ask, <quote>Does this still make sense?</quote>"
7399 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7400 #: freeculture.xml:5440
7402 "I've seen the flash of recognition when people get this point, but only a "
7403 "few times. The first was at a conference of federal judges in California. "
7404 "The judges were gathered to discuss the emerging topic of cyber-law. I was "
7405 "asked to be on the panel. Harvey Saferstein, a well-respected lawyer from an "
7406 "L.A. firm, introduced the panel with a video that he and a friend, Robert "
7407 "Fairbank, had produced."
7410 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7411 #: freeculture.xml:5450
7413 "The video was a brilliant collage of film from every period in the twentieth "
7414 "century, all framed around the idea of a <citetitle>60 Minutes</citetitle> "
7415 "episode. The execution was perfect, down to the sixty-minute stopwatch. The "
7416 "judges loved every minute of it."
7419 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7420 #: freeculture.xml:5455
7421 msgid "Nimmer, David"
7424 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7425 #: freeculture.xml:5457
7427 "When the lights came up, I looked over to my copanelist, David Nimmer, "
7428 "perhaps the leading copyright scholar and practitioner in the nation. He had "
7429 "an astonished look on his face, as he peered across the room of over 250 "
7430 "well-entertained judges. Taking an ominous tone, he began his talk with a "
7431 "question: <quote>Do you know how many federal laws were just violated in "
7432 "this room?</quote>"
7435 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7436 #: freeculture.xml:5464
7437 msgid "Boies, David"
7440 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7441 #: freeculture.xml:5467
7443 "For of course, the two brilliantly talented creators who made this film "
7444 "hadn't done what Alben did. They hadn't spent a year clearing the rights to "
7445 "these clips; technically, what they had done violated the law. Of course, "
7446 "it wasn't as if they or anyone were going to be prosecuted for this "
7447 "violation (the presence of 250 judges and a gaggle of federal marshals "
7448 "notwithstanding). But Nimmer was making an important point: A year before "
7449 "anyone would have heard of the word Napster, and two years before another "
7450 "member of our panel, David Boies, would defend Napster before the Ninth "
7451 "Circuit Court of Appeals, Nimmer was trying to get the judges to see that "
7452 "the law would not be friendly to the capacities that this technology would "
7453 "enable. Technology means you can now do amazing things easily; but you "
7454 "couldn't easily do them legally."
7457 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7458 #: freeculture.xml:5482
7460 "We live in a <quote>cut and paste</quote> culture enabled by "
7461 "technology. Anyone building a presentation knows the extraordinary freedom "
7462 "that the cut and paste architecture of the Internet created—in a "
7463 "second you can find just about any image you want; in another second, you "
7464 "can have it planted in your presentation."
7467 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7468 #: freeculture.xml:5488
7473 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7474 #: freeculture.xml:5490
7476 "But presentations are just a tiny beginning. Using the Internet and its "
7477 "archives, musicians are able to string together mixes of sound never before "
7478 "imagined; filmmakers are able to build movies out of clips on computers "
7479 "around the world. An extraordinary site in Sweden takes images of "
7480 "politicians and blends them with music to create biting political "
7481 "commentary. A site called Camp Chaos has produced some of the most biting "
7482 "criticism of the record industry that there is through the mixing of Flash! "
7486 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7487 #: freeculture.xml:5501
7489 "All of these creations are technically illegal. Even if the creators wanted "
7490 "to be <quote>legal,</quote> the cost of complying with the law is impossibly "
7491 "high. Therefore, for the law-abiding sorts, a wealth of creativity is never "
7492 "made. And for that part that is made, if it doesn't follow the clearance "
7493 "rules, it doesn't get released."
7496 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7497 #: freeculture.xml:5508
7499 "To some, these stories suggest a solution: Let's alter the mix of rights so "
7500 "that people are free to build upon our culture. Free to add or mix as they "
7501 "see fit. We could even make this change without necessarily requiring that "
7502 "the <quote>free</quote> use be free as in <quote>free beer.</quote> Instead, "
7503 "the system could simply make it easy for follow-on creators to compensate "
7504 "artists without requiring an army of lawyers to come along: a rule, for "
7505 "example, that says <quote>the royalty owed the copyright owner of an "
7506 "unregistered work for the derivative reuse of his work will be a flat 1 "
7507 "percent of net revenues, to be held in escrow for the copyright "
7508 "owner.</quote> Under this rule, the copyright owner could benefit from some "
7509 "royalty, but he would not have the benefit of a full property right (meaning "
7510 "the right to name his own price) unless he registers the work."
7513 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7514 #: freeculture.xml:5523
7516 "Who could possibly object to this? And what reason would there be for "
7517 "objecting? We're talking about work that is not now being made; which if "
7518 "made, under this plan, would produce new income for artists. What reason "
7519 "would anyone have to oppose it?"
7523 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7524 #: freeculture.xml:5529
7526 "<emphasis role='strong'>In February 2003</emphasis>, DreamWorks studios "
7527 "announced an agreement with Mike Myers, the comic genius of "
7528 "<citetitle>Saturday Night Live</citetitle> and Austin Powers. According to "
7529 "the announcement, Myers and Dream-Works would work together to form a "
7530 "<quote>unique filmmaking pact.</quote> Under the agreement, DreamWorks "
7531 "<quote>will acquire the rights to existing motion picture hits and classics, "
7532 "write new storylines and—with the use of stateof-the-art digital "
7533 "technology—insert Myers and other actors into the film, thereby "
7534 "creating an entirely new piece of entertainment.</quote>"
7537 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7538 #: freeculture.xml:5542
7540 "The announcement called this <quote>film sampling.</quote> As Myers "
7541 "explained, <quote>Film Sampling is an exciting way to put an original spin "
7542 "on existing films and allow audiences to see old movies in a new light. Rap "
7543 "artists have been doing this for years with music and now we are able to "
7544 "take that same concept and apply it to film.</quote> Steven Spielberg is "
7545 "quoted as saying, <quote>If anyone can create a way to bring old films to "
7546 "new audiences, it is Mike.</quote>"
7549 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7550 #: freeculture.xml:5551
7552 "Spielberg is right. Film sampling by Myers will be brilliant. But if you "
7553 "don't think about it, you might miss the truly astonishing point about this "
7554 "announcement. As the vast majority of our film heritage remains under "
7555 "copyright, the real meaning of the DreamWorks announcement is just this: It "
7556 "is Mike Myers and only Mike Myers who is free to sample. Any general freedom "
7557 "to build upon the film archive of our culture, a freedom in other contexts "
7558 "presumed for us all, is now a privilege reserved for the funny and "
7559 "famous—and presumably rich."
7562 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7563 #: freeculture.xml:5561
7565 "This privilege becomes reserved for two sorts of reasons. The first "
7566 "continues the story of the last chapter: the vagueness of <quote>fair "
7567 "use.</quote> Much of <quote>sampling</quote> should be considered "
7568 "<quote>fair use.</quote> But few would rely upon so weak a doctrine to "
7569 "create. That leads to the second reason that the privilege is reserved for "
7570 "the few: The costs of negotiating the legal rights for the creative reuse of "
7571 "content are astronomically high. These costs mirror the costs with fair "
7572 "use: You either pay a lawyer to defend your fair use rights or pay a lawyer "
7573 "to track down permissions so you don't have to rely upon fair use "
7574 "rights. Either way, the creative process is a process of paying "
7575 "lawyers—again a privilege, or perhaps a curse, reserved for the few."
7578 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
7579 #: freeculture.xml:5576
7580 msgid "CHAPTER NINE: Collectors"
7583 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7584 #: freeculture.xml:5578 freeculture.xml:8740 freeculture.xml:10969 freeculture.xml:11218
7585 msgid "archives, digital"
7588 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7589 #: freeculture.xml:5581
7591 "<emphasis role='strong'>In April 1996</emphasis>, millions of "
7592 "<quote>bots</quote>—computer codes designed to <quote>spider,</quote> "
7593 "or automatically search the Internet and copy content—began running "
7594 "across the Net. Page by page, these bots copied Internet-based information "
7595 "onto a small set of computers located in a basement in San Francisco's "
7596 "Presidio. Once the bots finished the whole of the Internet, they started "
7597 "again. Over and over again, once every two months, these bits of code took "
7598 "copies of the Internet and stored them."
7601 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7602 #: freeculture.xml:5592
7604 "By October 2001, the bots had collected more than five years of copies. And "
7605 "at a small announcement in Berkeley, California, the archive that these "
7606 "copies created, the Internet Archive, was opened to the world. Using a "
7607 "technology called <quote>the Way Back Machine,</quote> you could enter a Web "
7608 "page, and see all of its copies going back to 1996, as well as when those "
7612 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7613 #: freeculture.xml:5600
7614 msgid "Orwell, George"
7617 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7618 #: freeculture.xml:5603
7620 "This is the thing about the Internet that Orwell would have appreciated. In "
7621 "the dystopia described in <citetitle>1984</citetitle>, old newspapers were "
7622 "constantly updated to assure that the current view of the world, approved of "
7623 "by the government, was not contradicted by previous news reports."
7627 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7628 #: freeculture.xml:5611
7630 "Thousands of workers constantly reedited the past, meaning there was no way "
7631 "ever to know whether the story you were reading today was the story that was "
7632 "printed on the date published on the paper."
7635 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7636 #: freeculture.xml:5616
7638 "It's the same with the Internet. If you go to a Web page today, there's no "
7639 "way for you to know whether the content you are reading is the same as the "
7640 "content you read before. The page may seem the same, but the content could "
7641 "easily be different. The Internet is Orwell's library—constantly "
7642 "updated, without any reliable memory."
7645 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
7646 #: freeculture.xml:5631
7647 msgid "White House press releases"
7650 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7651 #: freeculture.xml:5630
7653 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
7654 "id=\"1\"/> The temptations remain, however. Brewster Kahle reports that the "
7655 "White House changes its own press releases without notice. A May 13, 2003, "
7656 "press release stated, <quote>Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended.</quote> "
7657 "That was later changed, without notice, to <quote>Major Combat Operations in "
7658 "Iraq Have Ended.</quote> E-mail from Brewster Kahle, 1 December 2003."
7661 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7662 #: freeculture.xml:5624
7664 "Until the Way Back Machine, at least. With the Way Back Machine, and the "
7665 "Internet Archive underlying it, you can see what the Internet was. You have "
7666 "the power to see what you remember. More importantly, perhaps, you also have "
7667 "the power to find what you don't remember and what others might prefer you "
7668 "forget.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
7671 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7672 #: freeculture.xml:5639
7673 msgid "history, records of"
7676 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7677 #: freeculture.xml:5641
7679 "<emphasis role='strong'>We take it</emphasis> for granted that we can go "
7680 "back to see what we remember reading. Think about newspapers. If you wanted "
7681 "to study the reaction of your hometown newspaper to the race riots in Watts "
7682 "in 1965, or to Bull Connor's water cannon in 1963, you could go to your "
7683 "public library and look at the newspapers. Those papers probably exist on "
7684 "microfiche. If you're lucky, they exist in paper, too. Either way, you are "
7685 "free, using a library, to go back and remember—not just what it is "
7686 "convenient to remember, but remember something close to the truth."
7689 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7690 #: freeculture.xml:5652
7692 "It is said that those who fail to remember history are doomed to repeat "
7693 "it. That's not quite correct. We <emphasis>all</emphasis> forget "
7694 "history. The key is whether we have a way to go back to rediscover what we "
7695 "forget. More directly, the key is whether an objective past can keep us "
7696 "honest. Libraries help do that, by collecting content and keeping it, for "
7697 "schoolchildren, for researchers, for grandma. A free society presumes this "
7702 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7703 #: freeculture.xml:5661
7705 "The Internet was an exception to this presumption. Until the Internet "
7706 "Archive, there was no way to go back. The Internet was the quintessentially "
7707 "transitory medium. And yet, as it becomes more important in forming and "
7708 "reforming society, it becomes more and more important to maintain in some "
7709 "historical form. It's just bizarre to think that we have scads of archives "
7710 "of newspapers from tiny towns around the world, yet there is but one copy of "
7711 "the Internet—the one kept by the Internet Archive."
7714 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7715 #: freeculture.xml:5672
7717 "Brewster Kahle is the founder of the Internet Archive. He was a very "
7718 "successful Internet entrepreneur after he was a successful computer "
7719 "researcher. In the 1990s, Kahle decided he had had enough business "
7720 "success. It was time to become a different kind of success. So he launched "
7721 "a series of projects designed to archive human knowledge. The Internet "
7722 "Archive was just the first of the projects of this Andrew Carnegie of the "
7723 "Internet. By December of 2002, the archive had over 10 billion pages, and it "
7724 "was growing at about a billion pages a month."
7727 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7728 #: freeculture.xml:5681
7729 msgid "Vanderbilt University"
7732 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7733 #: freeculture.xml:5683
7735 "The Way Back Machine is the largest archive of human knowledge in human "
7736 "history. At the end of 2002, it held <quote>two hundred and thirty terabytes "
7737 "of material</quote>—and was <quote>ten times larger than the Library "
7738 "of Congress.</quote> And this was just the first of the archives that Kahle "
7739 "set out to build. In addition to the Internet Archive, Kahle has been "
7740 "constructing the Television Archive. Television, it turns out, is even more "
7741 "ephemeral than the Internet. While much of twentieth-century culture was "
7742 "constructed through television, only a tiny proportion of that culture is "
7743 "available for anyone to see today. Three hours of news are recorded each "
7744 "evening by Vanderbilt University—thanks to a specific exemption in the "
7745 "copyright law. That content is indexed, and is available to scholars for a "
7746 "very low fee. <quote>But other than that, [television] is almost "
7747 "unavailable,</quote> Kahle told me. <quote>If you were Barbara Walters you "
7748 "could get access to [the archives], but if you are just a graduate "
7749 "student?</quote> As Kahle put it,"
7752 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><indexterm><primary>
7753 #: freeculture.xml:5700
7758 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
7759 #: freeculture.xml:5702
7761 "Do you remember when Dan Quayle was interacting with Murphy Brown? Remember "
7762 "that back and forth surreal experience of a politician interacting with a "
7763 "fictional television character? If you were a graduate student wanting to "
7764 "study that, and you wanted to get those original back and forth exchanges "
7765 "between the two, the <citetitle>60 Minutes</citetitle> episode that came out "
7766 "after it … it would be almost impossible. … Those materials "
7767 "are almost unfindable. …"
7770 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7771 #: freeculture.xml:5714
7773 "Why is that? Why is it that the part of our culture that is recorded in "
7774 "newspapers remains perpetually accessible, while the part that is recorded "
7775 "on videotape is not? How is it that we've created a world where researchers "
7776 "trying to understand the effect of media on nineteenthcentury America will "
7777 "have an easier time than researchers trying to understand the effect of "
7778 "media on twentieth-century America?"
7781 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7782 #: freeculture.xml:5722
7784 "In part, this is because of the law. Early in American copyright law, "
7785 "copyright owners were required to deposit copies of their work in "
7786 "libraries. These copies were intended both to facilitate the spread of "
7787 "knowledge and to assure that a copy of the work would be around once the "
7788 "copyright expired, so that others might access and copy the work."
7792 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7793 #: freeculture.xml:5739
7795 "Doug Herrick, <quote>Toward a National Film Collection: Motion Pictures at "
7796 "the Library of Congress,</quote> <citetitle>Film Library "
7797 "Quarterly</citetitle> 13 nos. 2–3 (1980): 5; Anthony Slide, "
7798 "<citetitle>Nitrate Won't Wait: A History of Film Preservation in the United "
7799 "States</citetitle> ( Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., 1992), 36."
7802 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7803 #: freeculture.xml:5730
7805 "These rules applied to film as well. But in 1915, the Library of Congress "
7806 "made an exception for film. Film could be copyrighted so long as such "
7807 "deposits were made. But the filmmaker was then allowed to borrow back the "
7808 "deposits—for an unlimited time at no cost. In 1915 alone, there were "
7809 "more than 5,475 films deposited and <quote>borrowed back.</quote> Thus, when "
7810 "the copyrights to films expire, there is no copy held by any library. The "
7811 "copy exists—if it exists at all—in the library archive of the "
7812 "film company.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
7815 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7816 #: freeculture.xml:5747
7818 "The same is generally true about television. Television broadcasts were "
7819 "originally not copyrighted—there was no way to capture the broadcasts, "
7820 "so there was no fear of <quote>theft.</quote> But as technology enabled "
7821 "capturing, broadcasters relied increasingly upon the law. The law required "
7822 "they make a copy of each broadcast for the work to be "
7823 "<quote>copyrighted.</quote> But those copies were simply kept by the "
7824 "broadcasters. No library had any right to them; the government didn't demand "
7825 "them. The content of this part of American culture is practically invisible "
7826 "to anyone who would look."
7830 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7831 #: freeculture.xml:5758
7833 "Kahle was eager to correct this. Before September 11, 2001, he and his "
7834 "allies had started capturing television. They selected twenty stations from "
7835 "around the world and hit the Record button. After September 11, Kahle, "
7836 "working with dozens of others, selected twenty stations from around the "
7837 "world and, beginning October 11, 2001, made their coverage during the week "
7838 "of September 11 available free on-line. Anyone could see how news reports "
7839 "from around the world covered the events of that day."
7842 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7843 #: freeculture.xml:5768
7844 msgid "Movie Archive"
7847 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7848 #: freeculture.xml:5770
7852 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><seealso>
7853 #: freeculture.xml:5771
7854 msgid "Internet Archive"
7857 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7858 #: freeculture.xml:5774
7860 "Kahle had the same idea with film. Working with Rick Prelinger, whose "
7861 "archive of film includes close to 45,000 <quote>ephemeral films</quote> "
7862 "(meaning films other than Hollywood movies, films that were never "
7863 "copyrighted), Kahle established the Movie Archive. Prelinger let Kahle "
7864 "digitize 1,300 films in this archive and post those films on the Internet to "
7865 "be downloaded for free. Prelinger's is a for-profit company. It sells copies "
7866 "of these films as stock footage. What he has discovered is that after he "
7867 "made a significant chunk available for free, his stock footage sales went up "
7868 "dramatically. People could easily find the material they wanted to use. Some "
7869 "downloaded that material and made films on their own. Others purchased "
7870 "copies to enable other films to be made. Either way, the archive enabled "
7871 "access to this important part of our culture. Want to see a copy of the "
7872 "<quote>Duck and Cover</quote> film that instructed children how to save "
7873 "themselves in the middle of nuclear attack? Go to archive.org, and you can "
7874 "download the film in a few minutes—for free."
7877 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7878 #: freeculture.xml:5792
7880 "Here again, Kahle is providing access to a part of our culture that we "
7881 "otherwise could not get easily, if at all. It is yet another part of what "
7882 "defines the twentieth century that we have lost to history. The law doesn't "
7883 "require these copies to be kept by anyone, or to be deposited in an archive "
7884 "by anyone. Therefore, there is no simple way to find them."
7887 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7888 #: freeculture.xml:5800
7890 "The key here is access, not price. Kahle wants to enable free access to this "
7891 "content, but he also wants to enable others to sell access to it. His aim is "
7892 "to ensure competition in access to this important part of our culture. Not "
7893 "during the commercial life of a bit of creative property, but during a "
7894 "second life that all creative property has—a noncommercial life."
7898 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7899 #: freeculture.xml:5808
7901 "For here is an idea that we should more clearly recognize. Every bit of "
7902 "creative property goes through different <quote>lives.</quote> In its first "
7903 "life, if the creator is lucky, the content is sold. In such cases the "
7904 "commercial market is successful for the creator. The vast majority of "
7905 "creative property doesn't enjoy such success, but some clearly does. For "
7906 "that content, commercial life is extremely important. Without this "
7907 "commercial market, there would be, many argue, much less creativity."
7910 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7911 #: freeculture.xml:5820
7913 "After the commercial life of creative property has ended, our tradition has "
7914 "always supported a second life as well. A newspaper delivers the news every "
7915 "day to the doorsteps of America. The very next day, it is used to wrap fish "
7916 "or to fill boxes with fragile gifts or to build an archive of knowledge "
7917 "about our history. In this second life, the content can continue to inform "
7918 "even if that information is no longer sold."
7921 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7922 #: freeculture.xml:5836
7924 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> Dave Barns, <quote>Fledgling "
7925 "Career in Antique Books: Woodstock Landlord, Bar Owner Starts a New Chapter "
7926 "by Adopting Business,</quote> <citetitle>Chicago Tribune</citetitle>, 5 "
7927 "September 1997, at Metro Lake 1L. Of books published between 1927 and 1946, "
7928 "only 2.2 percent were in print in 2002. R. Anthony Reese, <quote>The First "
7929 "Sale Doctrine in the Era of Digital Networks,</quote> <citetitle>Boston "
7930 "College Law Review</citetitle> 44 (2003): 593 n. 51."
7933 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7934 #: freeculture.xml:5833
7936 "The same has always been true about books. A book goes out of print very "
7937 "quickly (the average today is after about a year<placeholder "
7938 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>). After it is out of print, it can be sold in "
7939 "used book stores without the copyright owner getting anything and stored in "
7940 "libraries, where many get to read the book, also for free. Used book stores "
7941 "and libraries are thus the second life of a book. That second life is "
7942 "extremely important to the spread and stability of culture."
7945 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7946 #: freeculture.xml:5854
7948 "Yet increasingly, any assumption about a stable second life for creative "
7949 "property does not hold true with the most important components of popular "
7950 "culture in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. For "
7951 "these—television, movies, music, radio, the Internet—there is no "
7952 "guarantee of a second life. For these sorts of culture, it is as if we've "
7953 "replaced libraries with Barnes & Noble superstores. With this culture, "
7954 "what's accessible is nothing but what a certain limited market demands. "
7955 "Beyond that, culture disappears."
7959 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7960 #: freeculture.xml:5865
7962 "<emphasis role='strong'>For most of</emphasis> the twentieth century, it was "
7963 "economics that made this so. It would have been insanely expensive to "
7964 "collect and make accessible all television and film and music: The cost of "
7965 "analog copies is extraordinarily high. So even though the law in principle "
7966 "would have restricted the ability of a Brewster Kahle to copy culture "
7967 "generally, the real restriction was economics. The market made it impossibly "
7968 "difficult to do anything about this ephemeral culture; the law had little "
7972 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7973 #: freeculture.xml:5877
7975 "Perhaps the single most important feature of the digital revolution is that "
7976 "for the first time since the Library of Alexandria, it is feasible to "
7977 "imagine constructing archives that hold all culture produced or distributed "
7978 "publicly. Technology makes it possible to imagine an archive of all books "
7979 "published, and increasingly makes it possible to imagine an archive of all "
7980 "moving images and sound."
7983 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7984 #: freeculture.xml:5885
7986 "The scale of this potential archive is something we've never imagined "
7987 "before. The Brewster Kahles of our history have dreamed about it; but we are "
7988 "for the first time at a point where that dream is possible. As Kahle "
7992 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><indexterm><secondary>
7993 #: freeculture.xml:5893
7994 msgid "total number of"
7997 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
7998 #: freeculture.xml:5896
8000 "It looks like there's about two to three million recordings of music. "
8001 "Ever. There are about a hundred thousand theatrical releases of movies, "
8002 "… and about one to two million movies [distributed] during the "
8003 "twentieth century. There are about twenty-six million different titles of "
8004 "books. All of these would fit on computers that would fit in this room and "
8005 "be able to be afforded by a small company. So we're at a turning point in "
8006 "our history. Universal access is the goal. And the opportunity of leading a "
8007 "different life, based on this, is … thrilling. It could be one of the "
8008 "things humankind would be most proud of. Up there with the Library of "
8009 "Alexandria, putting a man on the moon, and the invention of the printing "
8014 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8015 #: freeculture.xml:5910
8017 "Kahle is not the only librarian. The Internet Archive is not the only "
8018 "archive. But Kahle and the Internet Archive suggest what the future of "
8019 "libraries or archives could be. <emphasis>When</emphasis> the commercial "
8020 "life of creative property ends, I don't know. But it does. And whenever it "
8021 "does, Kahle and his archive hint at a world where this knowledge, and "
8022 "culture, remains perpetually available. Some will draw upon it to understand "
8023 "it; some to criticize it. Some will use it, as Walt Disney did, to re-create "
8024 "the past for the future. These technologies promise something that had "
8025 "become unimaginable for much of our past—a future "
8026 "<emphasis>for</emphasis> our past. The technology of digital arts could make "
8027 "the dream of the Library of Alexandria real again."
8030 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8031 #: freeculture.xml:5925
8033 "Technologists have thus removed the economic costs of building such an "
8034 "archive. But lawyers' costs remain. For as much as we might like to call "
8035 "these <quote>archives,</quote> as warm as the idea of a "
8036 "<quote>library</quote> might seem, the <quote>content</quote> that is "
8037 "collected in these digital spaces is also someone's <quote>property.</quote> "
8038 "And the law of property restricts the freedoms that Kahle and others would "
8042 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
8043 #: freeculture.xml:5936
8044 msgid "CHAPTER TEN: <quote>Property</quote>"
8047 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8048 #: freeculture.xml:5937
8049 msgid "Johnson, Lyndon"
8052 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
8053 #: freeculture.xml:5938 freeculture.xml:9716
8054 msgid "Kennedy, John F."
8057 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8058 #: freeculture.xml:5940
8060 "<emphasis role='strong'>Jack Valenti</emphasis> has been the president of "
8061 "the Motion Picture Association of America since 1966. He first came to "
8062 "Washington, D.C., with Lyndon Johnson's administration—literally. The "
8063 "famous picture of Johnson's swearing-in on Air Force One after the "
8064 "assassination of President Kennedy has Valenti in the background. In his "
8065 "almost forty years of running the MPAA, Valenti has established himself as "
8066 "perhaps the most prominent and effective lobbyist in Washington."
8069 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
8070 #: freeculture.xml:5960
8071 msgid "Disney, Inc."
8074 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
8075 #: freeculture.xml:5961
8076 msgid "Sony Pictures Entertainment"
8079 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
8080 #: freeculture.xml:5962
8084 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
8085 #: freeculture.xml:5963
8086 msgid "Paramount Pictures"
8089 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
8090 #: freeculture.xml:5964
8091 msgid "Twentieth Century Fox"
8094 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
8095 #: freeculture.xml:5965
8096 msgid "Universal Pictures"
8099 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
8100 #: freeculture.xml:5966 freeculture.xml:7393
8101 msgid "Warner Brothers"
8104 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8105 #: freeculture.xml:5950
8107 "The MPAA is the American branch of the international Motion Picture "
8108 "Association. It was formed in 1922 as a trade association whose goal was to "
8109 "defend American movies against increasing domestic criticism. The "
8110 "organization now represents not only filmmakers but producers and "
8111 "distributors of entertainment for television, video, and cable. Its board is "
8112 "made up of the chairmen and presidents of the seven major producers and "
8113 "distributors of motion picture and television programs in the United States: "
8114 "Walt Disney, Sony Pictures Entertainment, MGM, Paramount Pictures, Twentieth "
8115 "Century Fox, Universal Studios, and Warner Brothers. <placeholder "
8116 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> "
8117 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
8118 "id=\"3\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"4\"/> <placeholder "
8119 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"5\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"6\"/>"
8123 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8124 #: freeculture.xml:5970
8126 "Valenti is only the third president of the MPAA. No president before him has "
8127 "had as much influence over that organization, or over Washington. As a "
8128 "Texan, Valenti has mastered the single most important political skill of a "
8129 "Southerner—the ability to appear simple and slow while hiding a "
8130 "lightning-fast intellect. To this day, Valenti plays the simple, humble "
8131 "man. But this Harvard MBA, and author of four books, who finished high "
8132 "school at the age of fifteen and flew more than fifty combat missions in "
8133 "World War II, is no Mr. Smith. When Valenti went to Washington, he mastered "
8134 "the city in a quintessentially Washingtonian way."
8137 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8138 #: freeculture.xml:5982
8140 "In defending artistic liberty and the freedom of speech that our culture "
8141 "depends upon, the MPAA has done important good. In crafting the MPAA rating "
8142 "system, it has probably avoided a great deal of speech-regulating harm. But "
8143 "there is an aspect to the organization's mission that is both the most "
8144 "radical and the most important. This is the organization's effort, "
8145 "epitomized in Valenti's every act, to redefine the meaning of "
8146 "<quote>creative property.</quote>"
8149 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8150 #: freeculture.xml:5991
8151 msgid "In 1982, Valenti's testimony to Congress captured the strategy perfectly:"
8155 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
8156 #: freeculture.xml:6005
8158 "Home Recording of Copyrighted Works: Hearings on H.R. 4783, H.R. 4794, "
8159 "H.R. 4808, H.R. 5250, H.R. 5488, and H.R. 5705 Before the Subcommittee on "
8160 "Courts, Civil Liberties, and the Administration of Justice of the Committee "
8161 "on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives, 97th Cong., 2nd "
8162 "sess. (1982): 65 (testimony of Jack Valenti)."
8165 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
8166 #: freeculture.xml:5996
8168 "No matter the lengthy arguments made, no matter the charges and the "
8169 "counter-charges, no matter the tumult and the shouting, reasonable men and "
8170 "women will keep returning to the fundamental issue, the central theme which "
8171 "animates this entire debate: <emphasis>Creative property owners must be "
8172 "accorded the same rights and protection resident in all other property "
8173 "owners in the nation</emphasis>. That is the issue. That is the "
8174 "question. And that is the rostrum on which this entire hearing and the "
8175 "debates to follow must rest.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
8179 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8180 #: freeculture.xml:6015
8182 "The strategy of this rhetoric, like the strategy of most of Valenti's "
8183 "rhetoric, is brilliant and simple and brilliant because simple. The "
8184 "<quote>central theme</quote> to which <quote>reasonable men and "
8185 "women</quote> will return is this: <quote>Creative property owners must be "
8186 "accorded the same rights and protections resident in all other property "
8187 "owners in the nation.</quote> There are no second-class citizens, Valenti "
8188 "might have continued. There should be no second-class property owners."
8191 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8192 #: freeculture.xml:6026
8194 "This claim has an obvious and powerful intuitive pull. It is stated with "
8195 "such clarity as to make the idea as obvious as the notion that we use "
8196 "elections to pick presidents. But in fact, there is no more extreme a claim "
8197 "made by <emphasis>anyone</emphasis> who is serious in this debate than this "
8198 "claim of Valenti's. Jack Valenti, however sweet and however brilliant, is "
8199 "perhaps the nation's foremost extremist when it comes to the nature and "
8200 "scope of <quote>creative property.</quote> His views have "
8201 "<emphasis>no</emphasis> reasonable connection to our actual legal tradition, "
8202 "even if the subtle pull of his Texan charm has slowly redefined that "
8203 "tradition, at least in Washington."
8207 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
8208 #: freeculture.xml:6041
8210 "Lawyers speak of <quote>property</quote> not as an absolute thing, but as a "
8211 "bundle of rights that are sometimes associated with a particular "
8212 "object. Thus, my <quote>property right</quote> to my car gives me the right "
8213 "to exclusive use, but not the right to drive at 150 miles an hour. For the "
8214 "best effort to connect the ordinary meaning of <quote>property</quote> to "
8215 "<quote>lawyer talk,</quote> see Bruce Ackerman, <citetitle>Private Property "
8216 "and the Constitution</citetitle> (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977), "
8220 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8221 #: freeculture.xml:6038
8223 "While <quote>creative property</quote> is certainly <quote>property</quote> "
8224 "in a nerdy and precise sense that lawyers are trained to "
8225 "understand,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> it has never been the "
8226 "case, nor should it be, that <quote>creative property owners</quote> have "
8227 "been <quote>accorded the same rights and protection resident in all other "
8228 "property owners.</quote> Indeed, if creative property owners were given the "
8229 "same rights as all other property owners, that would effect a radical, and "
8230 "radically undesirable, change in our tradition."
8233 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8234 #: freeculture.xml:6056
8236 "Valenti knows this. But he speaks for an industry that cares squat for our "
8237 "tradition and the values it represents. He speaks for an industry that is "
8238 "instead fighting to restore the tradition that the British overturned in "
8239 "1710. In the world that Valenti's changes would create, a powerful few would "
8240 "exercise powerful control over how our creative culture would develop."
8244 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8245 #: freeculture.xml:6064
8247 "I have two purposes in this chapter. The first is to convince you that, "
8248 "historically, Valenti's claim is absolutely wrong. The second is to convince "
8249 "you that it would be terribly wrong for us to reject our history. We have "
8250 "always treated rights in creative property differently from the rights "
8251 "resident in all other property owners. They have never been the same. And "
8252 "they should never be the same, because, however counterintuitive this may "
8253 "seem, to make them the same would be to fundamentally weaken the opportunity "
8254 "for new creators to create. Creativity depends upon the owners of "
8255 "creativity having less than perfect control."
8258 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8259 #: freeculture.xml:6079
8261 "Organizations such as the MPAA, whose board includes the most powerful of "
8262 "the old guard, have little interest, their rhetoric notwithstanding, in "
8263 "assuring that the new can displace them. No organization does. No person "
8264 "does. (Ask me about tenure, for example.) But what's good for the MPAA is "
8265 "not necessarily good for America. A society that defends the ideals of free "
8266 "culture must preserve precisely the opportunity for new creativity to "
8270 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8271 #: freeculture.xml:6088
8273 "<emphasis role='strong'>To get</emphasis> just a hint that there is "
8274 "something fundamentally wrong in Valenti's argument, we need look no further "
8275 "than the United States Constitution itself."
8278 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8279 #: freeculture.xml:6093
8281 "The framers of our Constitution loved <quote>property.</quote> Indeed, so "
8282 "strongly did they love property that they built into the Constitution an "
8283 "important requirement. If the government takes your property—if it "
8284 "condemns your house, or acquires a slice of land from your farm—it is "
8285 "required, under the Fifth Amendment's <quote>Takings Clause,</quote> to pay "
8286 "you <quote>just compensation</quote> for that taking. The Constitution thus "
8287 "guarantees that property is, in a certain sense, sacred. It cannot "
8288 "<emphasis>ever</emphasis> be taken from the property owner unless the "
8289 "government pays for the privilege."
8293 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8294 #: freeculture.xml:6104
8296 "Yet the very same Constitution speaks very differently about what Valenti "
8297 "calls <quote>creative property.</quote> In the clause granting Congress the "
8298 "power to create <quote>creative property,</quote> the Constitution "
8299 "<emphasis>requires</emphasis> that after a <quote>limited time,</quote> "
8300 "Congress take back the rights that it has granted and set the "
8301 "<quote>creative property</quote> free to the public domain. Yet when "
8302 "Congress does this, when the expiration of a copyright term "
8303 "<quote>takes</quote> your copyright and turns it over to the public domain, "
8304 "Congress does not have any obligation to pay <quote>just "
8305 "compensation</quote> for this <quote>taking.</quote> Instead, the same "
8306 "Constitution that requires compensation for your land requires that you lose "
8307 "your <quote>creative property</quote> right without any compensation at all."
8310 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8311 #: freeculture.xml:6119
8313 "The Constitution thus on its face states that these two forms of property "
8314 "are not to be accorded the same rights. They are plainly to be treated "
8315 "differently. Valenti is therefore not just asking for a change in our "
8316 "tradition when he argues that creative-property owners should be accorded "
8317 "the same rights as every other property-right owner. He is effectively "
8318 "arguing for a change in our Constitution itself."
8321 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8322 #: freeculture.xml:6128
8324 "Arguing for a change in our Constitution is not necessarily wrong. There "
8325 "was much in our original Constitution that was plainly wrong. The "
8326 "Constitution of 1789 entrenched slavery; it left senators to be appointed "
8327 "rather than elected; it made it possible for the electoral college to "
8328 "produce a tie between the president and his own vice president (as it did in "
8329 "1800). The framers were no doubt extraordinary, but I would be the first to "
8330 "admit that they made big mistakes. We have since rejected some of those "
8331 "mistakes; no doubt there could be others that we should reject as well. So "
8332 "my argument is not simply that because Jefferson did it, we should, too."
8335 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8336 #: freeculture.xml:6140
8338 "Instead, my argument is that because Jefferson did it, we should at least "
8339 "try to understand <emphasis>why</emphasis>. Why did the framers, fanatical "
8340 "property types that they were, reject the claim that creative property be "
8341 "given the same rights as all other property? Why did they require that for "
8342 "creative property there must be a public domain?"
8345 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8346 #: freeculture.xml:6148
8348 "To answer this question, we need to get some perspective on the history of "
8349 "these <quote>creative property</quote> rights, and the control that they "
8350 "enabled. Once we see clearly how differently these rights have been "
8351 "defined, we will be in a better position to ask the question that should be "
8352 "at the core of this war: Not <emphasis>whether</emphasis> creative property "
8353 "should be protected, but how. Not <emphasis>whether</emphasis> we will "
8354 "enforce the rights the law gives to creative-property owners, but what the "
8355 "particular mix of rights ought to be. Not <emphasis>whether</emphasis> "
8356 "artists should be paid, but whether institutions designed to assure that "
8357 "artists get paid need also control how culture develops."
8361 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8362 #: freeculture.xml:6163
8364 "To answer these questions, we need a more general way to talk about how "
8365 "property is protected. More precisely, we need a more general way than the "
8366 "narrow language of the law allows. In <citetitle>Code and Other Laws of "
8367 "Cyberspace</citetitle>, I used a simple model to capture this more general "
8368 "perspective. For any particular right or regulation, this model asks how "
8369 "four different modalities of regulation interact to support or weaken the "
8370 "right or regulation. I represented it with this diagram:"
8373 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><figure><title>
8374 #: freeculture.xml:6172
8376 "How four different modalities of regulation interact to support or weaken "
8377 "the right or regulation."
8380 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
8381 #: freeculture.xml:6173 freeculture.xml:6359 freeculture.xml:6667
8382 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1331.png\"></graphic>"
8385 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8386 #: freeculture.xml:6176
8388 "At the center of this picture is a regulated dot: the individual or group "
8389 "that is the target of regulation, or the holder of a right. (In each case "
8390 "throughout, we can describe this either as regulation or as a right. For "
8391 "simplicity's sake, I will speak only of regulations.) The ovals represent "
8392 "four ways in which the individual or group might be regulated— either "
8393 "constrained or, alternatively, enabled. Law is the most obvious constraint "
8394 "(to lawyers, at least). It constrains by threatening punishments after the "
8395 "fact if the rules set in advance are violated. So if, for example, you "
8396 "willfully infringe Madonna's copyright by copying a song from her latest CD "
8397 "and posting it on the Web, you can be punished with a $150,000 fine. The "
8398 "fine is an ex post punishment for violating an ex ante rule. It is imposed "
8399 "by the state. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
8402 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
8403 #: freeculture.xml:6192 freeculture.xml:6253 freeculture.xml:6362
8404 msgid "norms, regulatory influence of"
8407 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8408 #: freeculture.xml:6194
8410 "Norms are a different kind of constraint. They, too, punish an individual "
8411 "for violating a rule. But the punishment of a norm is imposed by a "
8412 "community, not (or not only) by the state. There may be no law against "
8413 "spitting, but that doesn't mean you won't be punished if you spit on the "
8414 "ground while standing in line at a movie. The punishment might not be harsh, "
8415 "though depending upon the community, it could easily be more harsh than many "
8416 "of the punishments imposed by the state. The mark of the difference is not "
8417 "the severity of the rule, but the source of the enforcement."
8420 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
8421 #: freeculture.xml:6204 freeculture.xml:6252 freeculture.xml:6342 freeculture.xml:6361 freeculture.xml:9329 freeculture.xml:9527
8422 msgid "market constraints"
8425 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8426 #: freeculture.xml:6206
8428 "The market is a third type of constraint. Its constraint is effected through "
8429 "conditions: You can do X if you pay Y; you'll be paid M if you do N. These "
8430 "constraints are obviously not independent of law or norms—it is "
8431 "property law that defines what must be bought if it is to be taken legally; "
8432 "it is norms that say what is appropriately sold. But given a set of norms, "
8433 "and a background of property and contract law, the market imposes a "
8434 "simultaneous constraint upon how an individual or group might behave."
8437 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
8438 #: freeculture.xml:6215 freeculture.xml:6251 freeculture.xml:6300 freeculture.xml:6341
8439 msgid "architecture, constraint effected through"
8442 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8443 #: freeculture.xml:6217
8445 "Finally, and for the moment, perhaps, most mysteriously, "
8446 "<quote>architecture</quote>—the physical world as one finds "
8447 "it—is a constraint on behavior. A fallen bridge might constrain your "
8448 "ability to get across a river. Railroad tracks might constrain the ability "
8449 "of a community to integrate its social life. As with the market, "
8450 "architecture does not effect its constraint through ex post "
8451 "punishments. Instead, also as with the market, architecture effects its "
8452 "constraint through simultaneous conditions. These conditions are imposed not "
8453 "by courts enforcing contracts, or by police punishing theft, but by nature, "
8454 "by <quote>architecture.</quote> If a 500-pound boulder blocks your way, it "
8455 "is the law of gravity that enforces this constraint. If a $500 airplane "
8456 "ticket stands between you and a flight to New York, it is the market that "
8457 "enforces this constraint."
8461 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8462 #: freeculture.xml:6234
8464 "So the first point about these four modalities of regulation is obvious: "
8465 "They interact. Restrictions imposed by one might be reinforced by "
8466 "another. Or restrictions imposed by one might be undermined by another."
8469 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8470 #: freeculture.xml:6240
8472 "The second point follows directly: If we want to understand the effective "
8473 "freedom that anyone has at a given moment to do any particular thing, we "
8474 "have to consider how these four modalities interact. Whether or not there "
8475 "are other constraints (there may well be; my claim is not about "
8476 "comprehensiveness), these four are among the most significant, and any "
8477 "regulator (whether controlling or freeing) must consider how these four in "
8478 "particular interact."
8481 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8482 #: freeculture.xml:6249
8483 msgid "driving speed, constraints on"
8486 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8487 #: freeculture.xml:6255
8489 "So, for example, consider the <quote>freedom</quote> to drive a car at a "
8490 "high speed. That freedom is in part restricted by laws: speed limits that "
8491 "say how fast you can drive in particular places at particular times. It is "
8492 "in part restricted by architecture: speed bumps, for example, slow most "
8493 "rational drivers; governors in buses, as another example, set the maximum "
8494 "rate at which the driver can drive. The freedom is in part restricted by the "
8495 "market: Fuel efficiency drops as speed increases, thus the price of gasoline "
8496 "indirectly constrains speed. And finally, the norms of a community may or "
8497 "may not constrain the freedom to speed. Drive at 50 mph by a school in your "
8498 "own neighborhood and you're likely to be punished by the neighbors. The same "
8499 "norm wouldn't be as effective in a different town, or at night."
8503 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
8504 #: freeculture.xml:6273
8506 "By describing the way law affects the other three modalities, I don't mean "
8507 "to suggest that the other three don't affect law. Obviously, they do. Law's "
8508 "only distinction is that it alone speaks as if it has a right "
8509 "self-consciously to change the other three. The right of the other three is "
8510 "more timidly expressed. See Lawrence Lessig, <citetitle>Code: And Other "
8511 "Laws of Cyberspace</citetitle> (New York: Basic Books, 1999): 90–95; "
8512 "Lawrence Lessig, <quote>The New Chicago School,</quote> <citetitle>Journal "
8513 "of Legal Studies</citetitle>, June 1998."
8517 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8518 #: freeculture.xml:6269
8520 "The final point about this simple model should also be fairly clear: While "
8521 "these four modalities are analytically independent, law has a special role "
8522 "in affecting the three.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The law, in "
8523 "other words, sometimes operates to increase or decrease the constraint of a "
8524 "particular modality. Thus, the law might be used to increase taxes on "
8525 "gasoline, so as to increase the incentives to drive more slowly. The law "
8526 "might be used to mandate more speed bumps, so as to increase the difficulty "
8527 "of driving rapidly. The law might be used to fund ads that stigmatize "
8528 "reckless driving. Or the law might be used to require that other laws be "
8529 "more strict—a federal requirement that states decrease the speed "
8530 "limit, for example—so as to decrease the attractiveness of fast "
8534 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><figure><title>
8535 #: freeculture.xml:6297
8536 msgid "Law has a special role in affecting the three."
8539 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><figure>
8540 #: freeculture.xml:6298
8541 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1361.png\"></graphic>"
8544 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
8545 #: freeculture.xml:6339
8546 msgid "Americans with Disabilities Act (1990)"
8549 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
8550 #: freeculture.xml:6340
8551 msgid "Commons, John R."
8554 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
8555 #: freeculture.xml:6310
8557 "Some people object to this way of talking about <quote>liberty.</quote> They "
8558 "object because their focus when considering the constraints that exist at "
8559 "any particular moment are constraints imposed exclusively by the "
8560 "government. For instance, if a storm destroys a bridge, these people think "
8561 "it is meaningless to say that one's liberty has been restrained. A bridge "
8562 "has washed out, and it's harder to get from one place to another. To talk "
8563 "about this as a loss of freedom, they say, is to confuse the stuff of "
8564 "politics with the vagaries of ordinary life. I don't mean to deny the value "
8565 "in this narrower view, which depends upon the context of the inquiry. I do, "
8566 "however, mean to argue against any insistence that this narrower view is the "
8567 "only proper view of liberty. As I argued in <citetitle>Code</citetitle>, we "
8568 "come from a long tradition of political thought with a broader focus than "
8569 "the narrow question of what the government did when. John Stuart Mill "
8570 "defended freedom of speech, for example, from the tyranny of narrow minds, "
8571 "not from the fear of government prosecution; John Stuart Mill, <citetitle>On "
8572 "Liberty</citetitle> (Indiana: Hackett Publishing Co., 1978), 19. John "
8573 "R. Commons famously defended the economic freedom of labor from constraints "
8574 "imposed by the market; John R. Commons, <quote>The Right to Work,</quote> in "
8575 "Malcom Rutherford and Warren J. Samuels, eds., <citetitle>John R. Commons: "
8576 "Selected Essays</citetitle> (London: Routledge: 1997), 62. The Americans "
8577 "with Disabilities Act increases the liberty of people with physical "
8578 "disabilities by changing the architecture of certain public places, thereby "
8579 "making access to those places easier; 42 <citetitle>United States "
8580 "Code</citetitle>, section 12101 (2000). Each of these interventions to "
8581 "change existing conditions changes the liberty of a particular group. The "
8582 "effect of those interventions should be accounted for in order to understand "
8583 "the effective liberty that each of these groups might face. <placeholder "
8584 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> "
8585 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
8589 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8590 #: freeculture.xml:6302
8592 "These constraints can thus change, and they can be changed. To understand "
8593 "the effective protection of liberty or protection of property at any "
8594 "particular moment, we must track these changes over time. A restriction "
8595 "imposed by one modality might be erased by another. A freedom enabled by one "
8596 "modality might be displaced by another.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
8600 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
8601 #: freeculture.xml:6346
8602 msgid "Why Hollywood Is Right"
8605 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8606 #: freeculture.xml:6348
8608 "The most obvious point that this model reveals is just why, or just how, "
8609 "Hollywood is right. The copyright warriors have rallied Congress and the "
8610 "courts to defend copyright. This model helps us see why that rallying makes "
8614 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8615 #: freeculture.xml:6354
8616 msgid "Let's say this is the picture of copyright's regulation before the Internet:"
8619 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
8620 #: freeculture.xml:6358 freeculture.xml:6666
8621 msgid "Copyright's regulation before the Internet."
8625 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8626 #: freeculture.xml:6365
8628 "There is balance between law, norms, market, and architecture. The law "
8629 "limits the ability to copy and share content, by imposing penalties on those "
8630 "who copy and share content. Those penalties are reinforced by technologies "
8631 "that make it hard to copy and share content (architecture) and expensive to "
8632 "copy and share content (market). Finally, those penalties are mitigated by "
8633 "norms we all recognize—kids, for example, taping other kids' "
8634 "records. These uses of copyrighted material may well be infringement, but "
8635 "the norms of our society (before the Internet, at least) had no problem with "
8636 "this form of infringement."
8639 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8640 #: freeculture.xml:6377
8642 "Enter the Internet, or, more precisely, technologies such as MP3s and p2p "
8643 "sharing. Now the constraint of architecture changes dramatically, as does "
8644 "the constraint of the market. And as both the market and architecture relax "
8645 "the regulation of copyright, norms pile on. The happy balance (for the "
8646 "warriors, at least) of life before the Internet becomes an effective state "
8647 "of anarchy after the Internet."
8651 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8652 #: freeculture.xml:6385
8654 "Thus the sense of, and justification for, the warriors' response. "
8655 "Technology has changed, the warriors say, and the effect of this change, "
8656 "when ramified through the market and norms, is that a balance of protection "
8657 "for the copyright owners' rights has been lost. This is Iraq after the fall "
8658 "of Saddam, but this time no government is justifying the looting that "
8662 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
8663 #: freeculture.xml:6395
8664 msgid "effective state of anarchy after the Internet."
8667 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
8668 #: freeculture.xml:6396
8669 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1381.png\"></graphic>"
8672 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8673 #: freeculture.xml:6399
8675 "Neither this analysis nor the conclusions that follow are new to the "
8676 "warriors. Indeed, in a <quote>White Paper</quote> prepared by the Commerce "
8677 "Department (one heavily influenced by the copyright warriors) in 1995, this "
8678 "mix of regulatory modalities had already been identified and the strategy to "
8679 "respond already mapped. In response to the changes the Internet had "
8680 "effected, the White Paper argued (1) Congress should strengthen intellectual "
8681 "property law, (2) businesses should adopt innovative marketing techniques, "
8682 "(3) technologists should push to develop code to protect copyrighted "
8683 "material, and (4) educators should educate kids to better protect copyright."
8686 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
8687 #: freeculture.xml:6410
8688 msgid "steel industry"
8692 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8693 #: freeculture.xml:6412
8695 "This mixed strategy is just what copyright needed—if it was to "
8696 "preserve the particular balance that existed before the change induced by "
8697 "the Internet. And it's just what we should expect the content industry to "
8698 "push for. It is as American as apple pie to consider the happy life you have "
8699 "as an entitlement, and to look to the law to protect it if something comes "
8700 "along to change that happy life. Homeowners living in a flood plain have no "
8701 "hesitation appealing to the government to rebuild (and rebuild again) when a "
8702 "flood (architecture) wipes away their property (law). Farmers have no "
8703 "hesitation appealing to the government to bail them out when a virus "
8704 "(architecture) devastates their crop. Unions have no hesitation appealing to "
8705 "the government to bail them out when imports (market) wipe out the "
8706 "U.S. steel industry."
8709 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8710 #: freeculture.xml:6429
8712 "Thus, there's nothing wrong or surprising in the content industry's campaign "
8713 "to protect itself from the harmful consequences of a technological "
8714 "innovation. And I would be the last person to argue that the changing "
8715 "technology of the Internet has not had a profound effect on the content "
8716 "industry's way of doing business, or as John Seely Brown describes it, its "
8717 "<quote>architecture of revenue.</quote>"
8720 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
8721 #: freeculture.xml:6436
8722 msgid "railroad industry"
8726 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
8727 #: freeculture.xml:6447
8729 "See Geoffrey Smith, <quote>Film vs. Digital: Can Kodak Build a "
8730 "Bridge?</quote> BusinessWeek online, 2 August 1999, available at <ulink "
8731 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #23</ulink>. For a more recent "
8732 "analysis of Kodak's place in the market, see Chana R. Schoenberger, "
8733 "<quote>Can Kodak Make Up for Lost Moments?</quote> Forbes.com, 6 October "
8734 "2003, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
8738 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8739 #: freeculture.xml:6439
8741 "But just because a particular interest asks for government support, it "
8742 "doesn't follow that support should be granted. And just because technology "
8743 "has weakened a particular way of doing business, it doesn't follow that the "
8744 "government should intervene to support that old way of doing "
8745 "business. Kodak, for example, has lost perhaps as much as 20 percent of "
8746 "their traditional film market to the emerging technologies of digital "
8747 "cameras.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Does anyone believe the "
8748 "government should ban digital cameras just to support Kodak? Highways have "
8749 "weakened the freight business for railroads. Does anyone think we should ban "
8750 "trucks from roads <emphasis>for the purpose of</emphasis> protecting the "
8751 "railroads? Closer to the subject of this book, remote channel changers have "
8752 "weakened the <quote>stickiness</quote> of television advertising (if a "
8753 "boring commercial comes on the TV, the remote makes it easy to surf ), and "
8754 "it may well be that this change has weakened the television advertising "
8755 "market. But does anyone believe we should regulate remotes to reinforce "
8756 "commercial television? (Maybe by limiting them to function only once a "
8757 "second, or to switch to only ten channels within an hour?)"
8760 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
8761 #: freeculture.xml:6468 freeculture.xml:14840
8762 msgid "Brezhnev, Leonid"
8765 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8766 #: freeculture.xml:6469 freeculture.xml:13073
8771 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
8772 #: freeculture.xml:6481
8774 "Fred Warshofsky, <citetitle>The Patent Wars</citetitle> (New York: Wiley, "
8775 "1994), 170–71."
8778 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8779 #: freeculture.xml:6471
8781 "The obvious answer to these obviously rhetorical questions is no. In a free "
8782 "society, with a free market, supported by free enterprise and free trade, "
8783 "the government's role is not to support one way of doing business against "
8784 "others. Its role is not to pick winners and protect them against loss. If "
8785 "the government did this generally, then we would never have any progress. As "
8786 "Microsoft chairman Bill Gates wrote in 1991, in a memo criticizing software "
8787 "patents, <quote>established companies have an interest in excluding future "
8788 "competitors.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> And relative "
8789 "to a startup, established companies also have the means. (Think RCA and FM "
8790 "radio.) A world in which competitors with new ideas must fight not only the "
8791 "market but also the government is a world in which competitors with new "
8792 "ideas will not succeed. It is a world of stasis and increasingly "
8793 "concentrated stagnation. It is the Soviet Union under Brezhnev."
8796 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8797 #: freeculture.xml:6492
8799 "Thus, while it is understandable for industries threatened with new "
8800 "technologies that change the way they do business to look to the government "
8801 "for protection, it is the special duty of policy makers to guarantee that "
8802 "that protection not become a deterrent to progress. It is the duty of policy "
8803 "makers, in other words, to assure that the changes they create, in response "
8804 "to the request of those hurt by changing technology, are changes that "
8805 "preserve the incentives and opportunities for innovation and change."
8808 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8809 #: freeculture.xml:6502
8811 "In the context of laws regulating speech—which include, obviously, "
8812 "copyright law—that duty is even stronger. When the industry "
8813 "complaining about changing technologies is asking Congress to respond in a "
8814 "way that burdens speech and creativity, policy makers should be especially "
8815 "wary of the request. It is always a bad deal for the government to get into "
8816 "the business of regulating speech markets. The risks and dangers of that "
8817 "game are precisely why our framers created the First Amendment to our "
8818 "Constitution: <quote>Congress shall make no law … abridging the "
8819 "freedom of speech.</quote> So when Congress is being asked to pass laws that "
8820 "would <quote>abridge</quote> the freedom of speech, it should ask— "
8821 "carefully—whether such regulation is justified."
8825 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8826 #: freeculture.xml:6516
8828 "My argument just now, however, has nothing to do with whether the changes "
8829 "that are being pushed by the copyright warriors are "
8830 "<quote>justified.</quote> My argument is about their effect. For before we "
8831 "get to the question of justification, a hard question that depends a great "
8832 "deal upon your values, we should first ask whether we understand the effect "
8833 "of the changes the content industry wants."
8836 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8837 #: freeculture.xml:6525
8838 msgid "Here's the metaphor that will capture the argument to follow."
8841 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
8842 #: freeculture.xml:6528
8846 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
8847 #: freeculture.xml:6536
8848 msgid "Müller, Paul Hermann"
8851 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8852 #: freeculture.xml:6531
8854 "In 1873, the chemical DDT was first synthesized. In 1948, Swiss chemist Paul "
8855 "Hermann Müller won the Nobel Prize for his work demonstrating the "
8856 "insecticidal properties of DDT. By the 1950s, the insecticide was widely "
8857 "used around the world to kill disease-carrying pests. It was also used to "
8858 "increase farm production. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
8861 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8862 #: freeculture.xml:6539
8864 "No one doubts that killing disease-carrying pests or increasing crop "
8865 "production is a good thing. No one doubts that the work of Müller was "
8866 "important and valuable and probably saved lives, possibly millions."
8869 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
8870 #: freeculture.xml:6543
8871 msgid "Carson, Rachel"
8874 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
8875 #: freeculture.xml:6544
8876 msgid "Silent Sprint (Carson)"
8879 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8880 #: freeculture.xml:6546
8882 "But in 1962, Rachel Carson published <citetitle>Silent Spring</citetitle>, "
8883 "which argued that DDT, whatever its primary benefits, was also having "
8884 "unintended environmental consequences. Birds were losing the ability to "
8885 "reproduce. Whole chains of the ecology were being destroyed."
8888 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8889 #: freeculture.xml:6552
8891 "No one set out to destroy the environment. Paul Müller certainly did not aim "
8892 "to harm any birds. But the effort to solve one set of problems produced "
8893 "another set which, in the view of some, was far worse than the problems that "
8894 "were originally attacked. Or more accurately, the problems DDT caused were "
8895 "worse than the problems it solved, at least when considering the other, more "
8896 "environmentally friendly ways to solve the problems that DDT was meant to "
8900 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
8901 #: freeculture.xml:6560
8902 msgid "Boyle, James"
8906 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
8907 #: freeculture.xml:6566
8909 "See, for example, James Boyle, <quote>A Politics of Intellectual Property: "
8910 "Environmentalism for the Net?</quote> <citetitle>Duke Law "
8911 "Journal</citetitle> 47 (1997): 87."
8915 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8916 #: freeculture.xml:6562
8918 "It is to this image precisely that Duke University law professor James Boyle "
8919 "appeals when he argues that we need an <quote>environmentalism</quote> for "
8920 "culture.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> His point, and the point I "
8921 "want to develop in the balance of this chapter, is not that the aims of "
8922 "copyright are flawed. Or that authors should not be paid for their work. Or "
8923 "that music should be given away <quote>for free.</quote> The point is that "
8924 "some of the ways in which we might protect authors will have unintended "
8925 "consequences for the cultural environment, much like DDT had for the natural "
8926 "environment. And just as criticism of DDT is not an endorsement of malaria "
8927 "or an attack on farmers, so, too, is criticism of one particular set of "
8928 "regulations protecting copyright not an endorsement of anarchy or an attack "
8929 "on authors. It is an environment of creativity that we seek, and we should "
8930 "be aware of our actions' effects on the environment."
8933 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8934 #: freeculture.xml:6583
8936 "My argument, in the balance of this chapter, tries to map exactly this "
8937 "effect. No doubt the technology of the Internet has had a dramatic effect on "
8938 "the ability of copyright owners to protect their content. But there should "
8939 "also be little doubt that when you add together the changes in copyright law "
8940 "over time, plus the change in technology that the Internet is undergoing "
8941 "just now, the net effect of these changes will not be only that copyrighted "
8942 "work is effectively protected. Also, and generally missed, the net effect of "
8943 "this massive increase in protection will be devastating to the environment "
8947 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8948 #: freeculture.xml:6594
8950 "In a line: To kill a gnat, we are spraying DDT with consequences for free "
8951 "culture that will be far more devastating than that this gnat will be lost."
8954 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
8955 #: freeculture.xml:6601
8959 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8960 #: freeculture.xml:6603
8962 "America copied English copyright law. Actually, we copied and improved "
8963 "English copyright law. Our Constitution makes the purpose of <quote>creative "
8964 "property</quote> rights clear; its express limitations reinforce the English "
8965 "aim to avoid overly powerful publishers."
8968 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8969 #: freeculture.xml:6609
8971 "The power to establish <quote>creative property</quote> rights is granted to "
8972 "Congress in a way that, for our Constitution, at least, is very odd. Article "
8973 "I, section 8, clause 8 of our Constitution states that:"
8977 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8978 #: freeculture.xml:6614
8980 "Congress has the power to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, "
8981 "by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right "
8982 "to their respective Writings and Discoveries. We can call this the "
8983 "<quote>Progress Clause,</quote> for notice what this clause does not say. It "
8984 "does not say Congress has the power to grant <quote>creative property "
8985 "rights.</quote> It says that Congress has the power <emphasis>to promote "
8986 "progress</emphasis>. The grant of power is its purpose, and its purpose is a "
8987 "public one, not the purpose of enriching publishers, nor even primarily the "
8988 "purpose of rewarding authors."
8991 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8992 #: freeculture.xml:6627
8994 "The Progress Clause expressly limits the term of copyrights. As we saw in "
8995 "chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"founders\"/>, the "
8996 "English limited the term of copyright so as to assure that a few would not "
8997 "exercise disproportionate control over culture by exercising "
8998 "disproportionate control over publishing. We can assume the framers followed "
8999 "the English for a similar purpose. Indeed, unlike the English, the framers "
9000 "reinforced that objective, by requiring that copyrights extend <quote>to "
9001 "Authors</quote> only."
9004 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9005 #: freeculture.xml:6637
9007 "The design of the Progress Clause reflects something about the "
9008 "Constitution's design in general. To avoid a problem, the framers built "
9009 "structure. To prevent the concentrated power of publishers, they built a "
9010 "structure that kept copyrights away from publishers and kept them short. To "
9011 "prevent the concentrated power of a church, they banned the federal "
9012 "government from establishing a church. To prevent concentrating power in the "
9013 "federal government, they built structures to reinforce the power of the "
9014 "states—including the Senate, whose members were at the time selected "
9015 "by the states, and an electoral college, also selected by the states, to "
9016 "select the president. In each case, a <emphasis>structure</emphasis> built "
9017 "checks and balances into the constitutional frame, structured to prevent "
9018 "otherwise inevitable concentrations of power."
9021 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9022 #: freeculture.xml:6652
9024 "I doubt the framers would recognize the regulation we call "
9025 "<quote>copyright</quote> today. The scope of that regulation is far beyond "
9026 "anything they ever considered. To begin to understand what they did, we need "
9027 "to put our <quote>copyright</quote> in context: We need to see how it has "
9028 "changed in the 210 years since they first struck its design."
9032 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9033 #: freeculture.xml:6659
9035 "Some of these changes come from the law: some in light of changes in "
9036 "technology, and some in light of changes in technology given a particular "
9037 "concentration of market power. In terms of our model, we started here:"
9040 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9041 #: freeculture.xml:6670
9042 msgid "We will end here:"
9045 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
9046 #: freeculture.xml:6673
9047 msgid "<quote>Copyright</quote> today."
9050 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
9051 #: freeculture.xml:6674
9052 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1442.png\"></graphic>"
9056 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9057 #: freeculture.xml:6677
9058 msgid "Let me explain how."
9061 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
9062 #: freeculture.xml:6682
9063 msgid "Law: Duration"
9066 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
9067 #: freeculture.xml:6698
9068 msgid "Crosskey, William W."
9071 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9072 #: freeculture.xml:6692
9074 "William W. Crosskey, <citetitle>Politics and the Constitution in the History "
9075 "of the United States</citetitle> (London: Cambridge University Press, 1953), "
9076 "vol. 1, 485–86: <quote>extinguish[ing], by plain implication of `the "
9077 "supreme Law of the Land,' <emphasis>the perpetual rights which authors had, "
9078 "or were supposed by some to have, under the Common Law</emphasis></quote> "
9079 "(emphasis added). <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
9082 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9083 #: freeculture.xml:6684
9085 "When the first Congress enacted laws to protect creative property, it faced "
9086 "the same uncertainty about the status of creative property that the English "
9087 "had confronted in 1774. Many states had passed laws protecting creative "
9088 "property, and some believed that these laws simply supplemented common law "
9089 "rights that already protected creative authorship.<placeholder "
9090 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> This meant that there was no guaranteed public "
9091 "domain in the United States in 1790. If copyrights were protected by the "
9092 "common law, then there was no simple way to know whether a work published in "
9093 "the United States was controlled or free. Just as in England, this lingering "
9094 "uncertainty would make it hard for publishers to rely upon a public domain "
9095 "to reprint and distribute works."
9098 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9099 #: freeculture.xml:6708
9101 "That uncertainty ended after Congress passed legislation granting "
9102 "copyrights. Because federal law overrides any contrary state law, federal "
9103 "protections for copyrighted works displaced any state law protections. Just "
9104 "as in England the Statute of Anne eventually meant that the copyrights for "
9105 "all English works expired, a federal statute meant that any state copyrights "
9109 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9110 #: freeculture.xml:6716
9112 "In 1790, Congress enacted the first copyright law. It created a federal "
9113 "copyright and secured that copyright for fourteen years. If the author was "
9114 "alive at the end of that fourteen years, then he could opt to renew the "
9115 "copyright for another fourteen years. If he did not renew the copyright, his "
9116 "work passed into the public domain."
9120 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9121 #: freeculture.xml:6731
9123 "Although 13,000 titles were published in the United States from 1790 to "
9124 "1799, only 556 copyright registrations were filed; John Tebbel, <citetitle>A "
9125 "History of Book Publishing in the United States</citetitle>, vol. 1, "
9126 "<citetitle>The Creation of an Industry, 1630–1865</citetitle> (New "
9127 "York: Bowker, 1972), 141. Of the 21,000 imprints recorded before 1790, only "
9128 "twelve were copyrighted under the 1790 act; William J. Maher, "
9129 "<citetitle>Copyright Term, Retrospective Extension and the Copyright Law of "
9130 "1790 in Historical Context</citetitle>, 7–10 (2002), available at "
9131 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #25</ulink>. Thus, the "
9132 "overwhelming majority of works fell immediately into the public domain. Even "
9133 "those works that were copyrighted fell into the public domain quickly, "
9134 "because the term of copyright was short. The initial term of copyright was "
9135 "fourteen years, with the option of renewal for an additional fourteen "
9136 "years. Copyright Act of May 31, 1790, §1, 1 stat. 124."
9139 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9140 #: freeculture.xml:6723
9142 "While there were many works created in the United States in the first ten "
9143 "years of the Republic, only 5 percent of the works were actually registered "
9144 "under the federal copyright regime. Of all the work created in the United "
9145 "States both before 1790 and from 1790 through 1800, 95 percent immediately "
9146 "passed into the public domain; the balance would pass into the pubic domain "
9147 "within twenty-eight years at most, and more likely within fourteen "
9148 "years.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
9152 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9153 #: freeculture.xml:6747
9155 "This system of renewal was a crucial part of the American system of "
9156 "copyright. It assured that the maximum terms of copyright would be granted "
9157 "only for works where they were wanted. After the initial term of fourteen "
9158 "years, if it wasn't worth it to an author to renew his copyright, then it "
9159 "wasn't worth it to society to insist on the copyright, either."
9163 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9164 #: freeculture.xml:6762
9166 "Few copyright holders ever chose to renew their copyrights. For instance, of "
9167 "the 25,006 copyrights registered in 1883, only 894 were renewed in 1910. For "
9168 "a year-by-year analysis of copyright renewal rates, see Barbara A. Ringer, "
9169 "<quote>Study No. 31: Renewal of Copyright,</quote> <citetitle>Studies on "
9170 "Copyright</citetitle>, vol. 1 (New York: Practicing Law Institute, 1963), "
9171 "618. For a more recent and comprehensive analysis, see William M. Landes and "
9172 "Richard A. Posner, <quote>Indefinitely Renewable Copyright,</quote> "
9173 "<citetitle>University of Chicago Law Review</citetitle> 70 (2003): 471, "
9174 "498–501, and accompanying figures."
9177 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9178 #: freeculture.xml:6756
9180 "Fourteen years may not seem long to us, but for the vast majority of "
9181 "copyright owners at that time, it was long enough: Only a small minority of "
9182 "them renewed their copyright after fourteen years; the balance allowed their "
9183 "work to pass into the public domain.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
9188 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9189 #: freeculture.xml:6781
9190 msgid "See Ringer, ch. 9, n. 2."
9193 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9194 #: freeculture.xml:6777
9196 "Even today, this structure would make sense. Most creative work has an "
9197 "actual commercial life of just a couple of years. Most books fall out of "
9198 "print after one year.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> When that "
9199 "happens, the used books are traded free of copyright regulation. Thus the "
9200 "books are no longer <emphasis>effectively</emphasis> controlled by "
9201 "copyright. The only practical commercial use of the books at that time is to "
9202 "sell the books as used books; that use—because it does not involve "
9203 "publication—is effectively free."
9206 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9207 #: freeculture.xml:6789
9209 "In the first hundred years of the Republic, the term of copyright was "
9210 "changed once. In 1831, the term was increased from a maximum of 28 years to "
9211 "a maximum of 42 by increasing the initial term of copyright from 14 years to "
9212 "28 years. In the next fifty years of the Republic, the term increased once "
9213 "again. In 1909, Congress extended the renewal term of 14 years to 28 years, "
9214 "setting a maximum term of 56 years."
9217 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9218 #: freeculture.xml:6797
9220 "Then, beginning in 1962, Congress started a practice that has defined "
9221 "copyright law since. Eleven times in the last forty years, Congress has "
9222 "extended the terms of existing copyrights; twice in those forty years, "
9223 "Congress extended the term of future copyrights. Initially, the extensions "
9224 "of existing copyrights were short, a mere one to two years. In 1976, "
9225 "Congress extended all existing copyrights by nineteen years. And in 1998, "
9226 "in the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, Congress extended the term "
9227 "of existing and future copyrights by twenty years."
9231 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9232 #: freeculture.xml:6807
9234 "The effect of these extensions is simply to toll, or delay, the passing of "
9235 "works into the public domain. This latest extension means that the public "
9236 "domain will have been tolled for thirty-nine out of fifty-five years, or 70 "
9237 "percent of the time since 1962. Thus, in the twenty years after the Sonny "
9238 "Bono Act, while one million patents will pass into the public domain, zero "
9239 "copyrights will pass into the public domain by virtue of the expiration of a "
9243 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9244 #: freeculture.xml:6818
9246 "The effect of these extensions has been exacerbated by another, "
9247 "little-noticed change in the copyright law. Remember I said that the framers "
9248 "established a two-part copyright regime, requiring a copyright owner to "
9249 "renew his copyright after an initial term. The requirement of renewal meant "
9250 "that works that no longer needed copyright protection would pass more "
9251 "quickly into the public domain. The works remaining under protection would "
9252 "be those that had some continuing commercial value."
9255 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9256 #: freeculture.xml:6828
9258 "The United States abandoned this sensible system in 1976. For all works "
9259 "created after 1978, there was only one copyright term—the maximum "
9260 "term. For <quote>natural</quote> authors, that term was life plus fifty "
9261 "years. For corporations, the term was seventy-five years. Then, in 1992, "
9262 "Congress abandoned the renewal requirement for all works created before "
9263 "1978. All works still under copyright would be accorded the maximum term "
9264 "then available. After the Sonny Bono Act, that term was ninety-five years."
9267 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9268 #: freeculture.xml:6838
9270 "This change meant that American law no longer had an automatic way to assure "
9271 "that works that were no longer exploited passed into the public domain. And "
9272 "indeed, after these changes, it is unclear whether it is even possible to "
9273 "put works into the public domain. The public domain is orphaned by these "
9274 "changes in copyright law. Despite the requirement that terms be "
9275 "<quote>limited,</quote> we have no evidence that anything will limit them."
9279 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9280 #: freeculture.xml:6855
9282 "These statistics are understated. Between the years 1910 and 1962 (the first "
9283 "year the renewal term was extended), the average term was never more than "
9284 "thirty-two years, and averaged thirty years. See Landes and Posner, "
9285 "<quote>Indefinitely Renewable Copyright,</quote> loc. cit."
9288 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9289 #: freeculture.xml:6847
9291 "The effect of these changes on the average duration of copyright is "
9292 "dramatic. In 1973, more than 85 percent of copyright owners failed to renew "
9293 "their copyright. That meant that the average term of copyright in 1973 was "
9294 "just 32.2 years. Because of the elimination of the renewal requirement, the "
9295 "average term of copyright is now the maximum term. In thirty years, then, "
9296 "the average term has tripled, from 32.2 years to 95 years.<placeholder "
9297 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
9300 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
9301 #: freeculture.xml:6864
9305 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9306 #: freeculture.xml:6866
9308 "The <quote>scope</quote> of a copyright is the range of rights granted by "
9309 "the law. The scope of American copyright has changed dramatically. Those "
9310 "changes are not necessarily bad. But we should understand the extent of the "
9311 "changes if we're to keep this debate in context."
9314 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9315 #: freeculture.xml:6872
9317 "In 1790, that scope was very narrow. Copyright covered only <quote>maps, "
9318 "charts, and books.</quote> That means it didn't cover, for example, music or "
9319 "architecture. More significantly, the right granted by a copyright gave the "
9320 "author the exclusive right to <quote>publish</quote> copyrighted works. That "
9321 "means someone else violated the copyright only if he republished the work "
9322 "without the copyright owner's permission. Finally, the right granted by a "
9323 "copyright was an exclusive right to that particular book. The right did not "
9324 "extend to what lawyers call <quote>derivative works.</quote> It would not, "
9325 "therefore, interfere with the right of someone other than the author to "
9326 "translate a copyrighted book, or to adapt the story to a different form "
9327 "(such as a drama based on a published book)."
9330 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9331 #: freeculture.xml:6885
9333 "This, too, has changed dramatically. While the contours of copyright today "
9334 "are extremely hard to describe simply, in general terms, the right covers "
9335 "practically any creative work that is reduced to a tangible form. It covers "
9336 "music as well as architecture, drama as well as computer programs. It gives "
9337 "the copyright owner of that creative work not only the exclusive right to "
9338 "<quote>publish</quote> the work, but also the exclusive right of control "
9339 "over any <quote>copies</quote> of that work. And most significant for our "
9340 "purposes here, the right gives the copyright owner control over not only his "
9341 "or her particular work, but also any <quote>derivative work</quote> that "
9342 "might grow out of the original work. In this way, the right covers more "
9343 "creative work, protects the creative work more broadly, and protects works "
9344 "that are based in a significant way on the initial creative work."
9348 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9349 #: freeculture.xml:6900
9351 "At the same time that the scope of copyright has expanded, procedural "
9352 "limitations on the right have been relaxed. I've already described the "
9353 "complete removal of the renewal requirement in 1992. In addition to the "
9354 "renewal requirement, for most of the history of American copyright law, "
9355 "there was a requirement that a work be registered before it could receive "
9356 "the protection of a copyright. There was also a requirement that any "
9357 "copyrighted work be marked either with that famous © or the word "
9358 "<emphasis>copyright</emphasis>. And for most of the history of American "
9359 "copyright law, there was a requirement that works be deposited with the "
9360 "government before a copyright could be secured."
9363 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9364 #: freeculture.xml:6914
9366 "The reason for the registration requirement was the sensible understanding "
9367 "that for most works, no copyright was required. Again, in the first ten "
9368 "years of the Republic, 95 percent of works eligible for copyright were never "
9369 "copyrighted. Thus, the rule reflected the norm: Most works apparently didn't "
9370 "need copyright, so registration narrowed the regulation of the law to the "
9371 "few that did. The same reasoning justified the requirement that a work be "
9372 "marked as copyrighted—that way it was easy to know whether a copyright "
9373 "was being claimed. The requirement that works be deposited was to assure "
9374 "that after the copyright expired, there would be a copy of the work "
9375 "somewhere so that it could be copied by others without locating the original "
9379 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9380 #: freeculture.xml:6928
9382 "All of these <quote>formalities</quote> were abolished in the American "
9383 "system when we decided to follow European copyright law. There is no "
9384 "requirement that you register a work to get a copyright; the copyright now "
9385 "is automatic; the copyright exists whether or not you mark your work with a "
9386 "©; and the copyright exists whether or not you actually make a copy "
9387 "available for others to copy."
9390 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9391 #: freeculture.xml:6936
9392 msgid "Consider a practical example to understand the scope of these differences."
9396 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9397 #: freeculture.xml:6947
9399 "See Thomas Bender and David Sampliner, <quote>Poets, Pirates, and the "
9400 "Creation of American Literature,</quote> 29 <citetitle>New York University "
9401 "Journal of International Law and Politics</citetitle> 255 (1997), and James "
9402 "Gilraeth, ed., Federal Copyright Records, 1790–1800 (U.S. G.P.O., "
9406 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9407 #: freeculture.xml:6940
9409 "If, in 1790, you wrote a book and you were one of the 5 percent who actually "
9410 "copyrighted that book, then the copyright law protected you against another "
9411 "publisher's taking your book and republishing it without your "
9412 "permission. The aim of the act was to regulate publishers so as to prevent "
9413 "that kind of unfair competition. In 1790, there were 174 publishers in the "
9414 "United States.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The Copyright Act "
9415 "was thus a tiny regulation of a tiny proportion of a tiny part of the "
9416 "creative market in the United States—publishers."
9420 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9421 #: freeculture.xml:6959
9423 "The act left other creators totally unregulated. If I copied your poem by "
9424 "hand, over and over again, as a way to learn it by heart, my act was totally "
9425 "unregulated by the 1790 act. If I took your novel and made a play based upon "
9426 "it, or if I translated it or abridged it, none of those activities were "
9427 "regulated by the original copyright act. These creative activities remained "
9428 "free, while the activities of publishers were restrained."
9431 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9432 #: freeculture.xml:6968
9434 "Today the story is very different: If you write a book, your book is "
9435 "automatically protected. Indeed, not just your book. Every e-mail, every "
9436 "note to your spouse, every doodle, <emphasis>every</emphasis> creative act "
9437 "that's reduced to a tangible form—all of this is automatically "
9438 "copyrighted. There is no need to register or mark your work. The protection "
9439 "follows the creation, not the steps you take to protect it."
9442 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9443 #: freeculture.xml:6977
9445 "That protection gives you the right (subject to a narrow range of fair use "
9446 "exceptions) to control how others copy the work, whether they copy it to "
9447 "republish it or to share an excerpt."
9450 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9451 #: freeculture.xml:6982
9453 "That much is the obvious part. Any system of copyright would control "
9454 "competing publishing. But there's a second part to the copyright of today "
9455 "that is not at all obvious. This is the protection of <quote>derivative "
9456 "rights.</quote> If you write a book, no one can make a movie out of your "
9457 "book without permission. No one can translate it without permission. "
9458 "CliffsNotes can't make an abridgment unless permission is granted. All of "
9459 "these derivative uses of your original work are controlled by the copyright "
9460 "holder. The copyright, in other words, is now not just an exclusive right to "
9461 "your writings, but an exclusive right to your writings and a large "
9462 "proportion of the writings inspired by them."
9465 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9466 #: freeculture.xml:6996
9468 "It is this derivative right that would seem most bizarre to our framers, "
9469 "though it has become second nature to us. Initially, this expansion was "
9470 "created to deal with obvious evasions of a narrower copyright. If I write a "
9471 "book, can you change one word and then claim a copyright in a new and "
9472 "different book? Obviously that would make a joke of the copyright, so the "
9473 "law was properly expanded to include those slight modifications as well as "
9474 "the verbatim original work."
9477 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9478 #: freeculture.xml:7018
9480 "Jonathan Zittrain, <quote>The Copyright Cage,</quote> <citetitle>Legal "
9481 "Affairs</citetitle>, July/August 2003, available at <ulink "
9482 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #26</ulink>. <placeholder "
9483 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
9486 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9487 #: freeculture.xml:7008
9489 "In preventing that joke, the law created an astonishing power within a free "
9490 "culture—at least, it's astonishing when you understand that the law "
9491 "applies not just to the commercial publisher but to anyone with a "
9492 "computer. I understand the wrong in duplicating and selling someone else's "
9493 "work. But whatever <emphasis>that</emphasis> wrong is, transforming someone "
9494 "else's work is a different wrong. Some view transformation as no wrong at "
9495 "all—they believe that our law, as the framers penned it, should not "
9496 "protect derivative rights at all.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
9497 "Whether or not you go that far, it seems plain that whatever wrong is "
9498 "involved is fundamentally different from the wrong of direct piracy."
9501 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
9502 #: freeculture.xml:7040
9503 msgid "Rubenfeld, Jeb"
9506 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9507 #: freeculture.xml:7033
9509 "Professor Rubenfeld has presented a powerful constitutional argument about "
9510 "the difference that copyright law should draw (from the perspective of the "
9511 "First Amendment) between mere <quote>copies</quote> and derivative "
9512 "works. See Jed Rubenfeld, <quote>The Freedom of Imagination: Copyright's "
9513 "Constitutionality,</quote> <citetitle>Yale Law Journal</citetitle> 112 "
9514 "(2002): 1–60 (see especially pp. 53–59). <placeholder "
9515 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
9518 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9519 #: freeculture.xml:7028
9521 "Yet copyright law treats these two different wrongs in the same way. I can "
9522 "go to court and get an injunction against your pirating my book. I can go to "
9523 "court and get an injunction against your transformative use of my "
9524 "book.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> These two different uses of "
9525 "my creative work are treated the same."
9528 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9529 #: freeculture.xml:7045
9531 "This again may seem right to you. If I wrote a book, then why should you be "
9532 "able to write a movie that takes my story and makes money from it without "
9533 "paying me or crediting me? Or if Disney creates a creature called "
9534 "<quote>Mickey Mouse,</quote> why should you be able to make Mickey Mouse "
9535 "toys and be the one to trade on the value that Disney originally created?"
9538 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9539 #: freeculture.xml:7053
9541 "These are good arguments, and, in general, my point is not that the "
9542 "derivative right is unjustified. My aim just now is much narrower: simply to "
9543 "make clear that this expansion is a significant change from the rights "
9544 "originally granted."
9547 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
9548 #: freeculture.xml:7060
9549 msgid "Law and Architecture: Reach"
9553 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9554 #: freeculture.xml:7067
9556 "This is a simplification of the law, but not much of one. The law certainly "
9557 "regulates more than <quote>copies</quote>—a public performance of a "
9558 "copyrighted song, for example, is regulated even though performance per se "
9559 "doesn't make a copy; 17 <citetitle>United States Code</citetitle>, section "
9560 "106(4). And it certainly sometimes doesn't regulate a <quote>copy</quote>; "
9561 "17 <citetitle>United States Code</citetitle>, section 112(a). But the "
9562 "presumption under the existing law (which regulates <quote>copies;</quote> "
9563 "17 <citetitle>United States Code</citetitle>, section 102) is that if there "
9564 "is a copy, there is a right."
9567 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9568 #: freeculture.xml:7062
9570 "Whereas originally the law regulated only publishers, the change in "
9571 "copyright's scope means that the law today regulates publishers, users, and "
9572 "authors. It regulates them because all three are capable of making copies, "
9573 "and the core of the regulation of copyright law is copies.<placeholder "
9574 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
9578 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9579 #: freeculture.xml:7079
9581 "<quote>Copies.</quote> That certainly sounds like the obvious thing for "
9582 "<emphasis>copy</emphasis>right law to regulate. But as with Jack Valenti's "
9583 "argument at the start of this chapter, that <quote>creative property</quote> "
9584 "deserves the <quote>same rights</quote> as all other property, it is the "
9585 "<emphasis>obvious</emphasis> that we need to be most careful about. For "
9586 "while it may be obvious that in the world before the Internet, copies were "
9587 "the obvious trigger for copyright law, upon reflection, it should be obvious "
9588 "that in the world with the Internet, copies should <emphasis>not</emphasis> "
9589 "be the trigger for copyright law. More precisely, they should not "
9590 "<emphasis>always</emphasis> be the trigger for copyright law."
9594 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9595 #: freeculture.xml:7097
9597 "Thus, my argument is not that in each place that copyright law extends, we "
9598 "should repeal it. It is instead that we should have a good argument for its "
9599 "extending where it does, and should not determine its reach on the basis of "
9600 "arbitrary and automatic changes caused by technology."
9603 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9604 #: freeculture.xml:7092
9606 "This is perhaps the central claim of this book, so let me take this very "
9607 "slowly so that the point is not easily missed. My claim is that the Internet "
9608 "should at least force us to rethink the conditions under which the law of "
9609 "copyright automatically applies,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
9610 "because it is clear that the current reach of copyright was never "
9611 "contemplated, much less chosen, by the legislators who enacted copyright "
9615 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9616 #: freeculture.xml:7108
9618 "We can see this point abstractly by beginning with this largely empty "
9622 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
9623 #: freeculture.xml:7112
9624 msgid "All potential uses of a book."
9627 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
9628 #: freeculture.xml:7113
9629 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1521.png\"></graphic>"
9633 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9634 #: freeculture.xml:7117
9636 "Think about a book in real space, and imagine this circle to represent all "
9637 "its potential <emphasis>uses</emphasis>. Most of these uses are unregulated "
9638 "by copyright law, because the uses don't create a copy. If you read a book, "
9639 "that act is not regulated by copyright law. If you give someone the book, "
9640 "that act is not regulated by copyright law. If you resell a book, that act "
9641 "is not regulated (copyright law expressly states that after the first sale "
9642 "of a book, the copyright owner can impose no further conditions on the "
9643 "disposition of the book). If you sleep on the book or use it to hold up a "
9644 "lamp or let your puppy chew it up, those acts are not regulated by copyright "
9645 "law, because those acts do not make a copy."
9648 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
9649 #: freeculture.xml:7130
9650 msgid "Examples of unregulated uses of a book."
9653 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
9654 #: freeculture.xml:7131
9655 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1531.png\"></graphic>"
9658 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9659 #: freeculture.xml:7134
9661 "Obviously, however, some uses of a copyrighted book are regulated by "
9662 "copyright law. Republishing the book, for example, makes a copy. It is "
9663 "therefore regulated by copyright law. Indeed, this particular use stands at "
9664 "the core of this circle of possible uses of a copyrighted work. It is the "
9665 "paradigmatic use properly regulated by copyright regulation (see first "
9666 "diagram on next page)."
9669 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9670 #: freeculture.xml:7142
9672 "Finally, there is a tiny sliver of otherwise regulated copying uses that "
9673 "remain unregulated because the law considers these <quote>fair uses.</quote>"
9676 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
9677 #: freeculture.xml:7147
9679 "Republishing stands at the core of this circle of possible uses of a "
9683 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
9684 #: freeculture.xml:7148
9685 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1541.png\"></graphic>"
9688 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9689 #: freeculture.xml:7151
9691 "These are uses that themselves involve copying, but which the law treats as "
9692 "unregulated because public policy demands that they remain unregulated. You "
9693 "are free to quote from this book, even in a review that is quite negative, "
9694 "without my permission, even though that quoting makes a copy. That copy "
9695 "would ordinarily give the copyright owner the exclusive right to say whether "
9696 "the copy is allowed or not, but the law denies the owner any exclusive right "
9697 "over such <quote>fair uses</quote> for public policy (and possibly First "
9698 "Amendment) reasons."
9701 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
9702 #: freeculture.xml:7161
9703 msgid "Unregulated copying considered <quote>fair uses.</quote>"
9706 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
9707 #: freeculture.xml:7162
9708 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1542.png\"></graphic>"
9711 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
9712 #: freeculture.xml:7166
9714 "Uses that before were presumptively unregulated are now presumptively "
9718 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
9719 #: freeculture.xml:7167
9720 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1551.png\"></graphic>"
9724 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9725 #: freeculture.xml:7171
9727 "In real space, then, the possible uses of a book are divided into three "
9728 "sorts: (1) unregulated uses, (2) regulated uses, and (3) regulated uses that "
9729 "are nonetheless deemed <quote>fair</quote> regardless of the copyright "
9733 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
9734 #: freeculture.xml:7177 freeculture.xml:7214 freeculture.xml:7430
9739 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9740 #: freeculture.xml:7183
9742 "I don't mean <quote>nature</quote> in the sense that it couldn't be "
9743 "different, but rather that its present instantiation entails a copy. Optical "
9744 "networks need not make copies of content they transmit, and a digital "
9745 "network could be designed to delete anything it copies so that the same "
9746 "number of copies remain."
9749 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9750 #: freeculture.xml:7180
9752 "Enter the Internet—a distributed, digital network where every use of a "
9753 "copyrighted work produces a copy.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
9754 "And because of this single, arbitrary feature of the design of a digital "
9755 "network, the scope of category 1 changes dramatically. Uses that before were "
9756 "presumptively unregulated are now presumptively regulated. No longer is "
9757 "there a set of presumptively unregulated uses that define a freedom "
9758 "associated with a copyrighted work. Instead, each use is now subject to the "
9759 "copyright, because each use also makes a copy—category 1 gets sucked "
9760 "into category 2. And those who would defend the unregulated uses of "
9761 "copyrighted work must look exclusively to category 3, fair uses, to bear the "
9762 "burden of this shift."
9766 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9767 #: freeculture.xml:7201
9769 "So let's be very specific to make this general point clear. Before the "
9770 "Internet, if you purchased a book and read it ten times, there would be no "
9771 "plausible <emphasis>copyright</emphasis>-related argument that the copyright "
9772 "owner could make to control that use of her book. Copyright law would have "
9773 "nothing to say about whether you read the book once, ten times, or every "
9774 "night before you went to bed. None of those instances of "
9775 "use—reading— could be regulated by copyright law because none of "
9776 "those uses produced a copy."
9779 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9780 #: freeculture.xml:7217
9782 "But the same book as an e-book is effectively governed by a different set of "
9783 "rules. Now if the copyright owner says you may read the book only once or "
9784 "only once a month, then <emphasis>copyright law</emphasis> would aid the "
9785 "copyright owner in exercising this degree of control, because of the "
9786 "accidental feature of copyright law that triggers its application upon there "
9787 "being a copy. Now if you read the book ten times and the license says you "
9788 "may read it only five times, then whenever you read the book (or any portion "
9789 "of it) beyond the fifth time, you are making a copy of the book contrary to "
9790 "the copyright owner's wish."
9793 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9794 #: freeculture.xml:7229
9796 "There are some people who think this makes perfect sense. My aim just now is "
9797 "not to argue about whether it makes sense or not. My aim is only to make "
9798 "clear the change. Once you see this point, a few other points also become "
9802 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9803 #: freeculture.xml:7235
9805 "First, making category 1 disappear is not anything any policy maker ever "
9806 "intended. Congress did not think through the collapse of the presumptively "
9807 "unregulated uses of copyrighted works. There is no evidence at all that "
9808 "policy makers had this idea in mind when they allowed our policy here to "
9809 "shift. Unregulated uses were an important part of free culture before the "
9813 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9814 #: freeculture.xml:7243
9816 "Second, this shift is especially troubling in the context of transformative "
9817 "uses of creative content. Again, we can all understand the wrong in "
9818 "commercial piracy. But the law now purports to regulate "
9819 "<emphasis>any</emphasis> transformation you make of creative work using a "
9820 "machine. <quote>Copy and paste</quote> and <quote>cut and paste</quote> "
9821 "become crimes. Tinkering with a story and releasing it to others exposes the "
9822 "tinkerer to at least a requirement of justification. However troubling the "
9823 "expansion with respect to copying a particular work, it is extraordinarily "
9824 "troubling with respect to transformative uses of creative work."
9828 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9829 #: freeculture.xml:7255
9831 "Third, this shift from category 1 to category 2 puts an extraordinary burden "
9832 "on category 3 (<quote>fair use</quote>) that fair use never before had to "
9833 "bear. If a copyright owner now tried to control how many times I could read "
9834 "a book on-line, the natural response would be to argue that this is a "
9835 "violation of my fair use rights. But there has never been any litigation "
9836 "about whether I have a fair use right to read, because before the Internet, "
9837 "reading did not trigger the application of copyright law and hence the need "
9838 "for a fair use defense. The right to read was effectively protected before "
9839 "because reading was not regulated."
9842 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9843 #: freeculture.xml:7269
9845 "This point about fair use is totally ignored, even by advocates for free "
9846 "culture. We have been cornered into arguing that our rights depend upon fair "
9847 "use—never even addressing the earlier question about the expansion in "
9848 "effective regulation. A thin protection grounded in fair use makes sense "
9849 "when the vast majority of uses are <emphasis>unregulated</emphasis>. But "
9850 "when everything becomes presumptively regulated, then the protections of "
9851 "fair use are not enough."
9854 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9855 #: freeculture.xml:7282
9857 "The case of Video Pipeline is a good example. Video Pipeline was in the "
9858 "business of making <quote>trailer</quote> advertisements for movies "
9859 "available to video stores. The video stores displayed the trailers as a way "
9860 "to sell videos. Video Pipeline got the trailers from the film distributors, "
9861 "put the trailers on tape, and sold the tapes to the retail stores."
9864 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9865 #: freeculture.xml:7289
9867 "The company did this for about fifteen years. Then, in 1997, it began to "
9868 "think about the Internet as another way to distribute these previews. The "
9869 "idea was to expand their <quote>selling by sampling</quote> technique by "
9870 "giving on-line stores the same ability to enable <quote>browsing.</quote> "
9871 "Just as in a bookstore you can read a few pages of a book before you buy the "
9872 "book, so, too, you would be able to sample a bit from the movie on-line "
9873 "before you bought it."
9877 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9878 #: freeculture.xml:7298
9880 "In 1998, Video Pipeline informed Disney and other film distributors that it "
9881 "intended to distribute the trailers through the Internet (rather than "
9882 "sending the tapes) to distributors of their videos. Two years later, Disney "
9883 "told Video Pipeline to stop. The owner of Video Pipeline asked Disney to "
9884 "talk about the matter—he had built a business on distributing this "
9885 "content as a way to help sell Disney films; he had customers who depended "
9886 "upon his delivering this content. Disney would agree to talk only if Video "
9887 "Pipeline stopped the distribution immediately. Video Pipeline thought it "
9888 "was within their <quote>fair use</quote> rights to distribute the clips as "
9889 "they had. So they filed a lawsuit to ask the court to declare that these "
9890 "rights were in fact their rights."
9893 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9894 #: freeculture.xml:7313
9896 "Disney countersued—for $100 million in damages. Those damages were "
9897 "predicated upon a claim that Video Pipeline had <quote>willfully "
9898 "infringed</quote> on Disney's copyright. When a court makes a finding of "
9899 "willful infringement, it can award damages not on the basis of the actual "
9900 "harm to the copyright owner, but on the basis of an amount set in the "
9901 "statute. Because Video Pipeline had distributed seven hundred clips of "
9902 "Disney movies to enable video stores to sell copies of those movies, Disney "
9903 "was now suing Video Pipeline for $100 million."
9906 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9907 #: freeculture.xml:7323
9909 "Disney has the right to control its property, of course. But the video "
9910 "stores that were selling Disney's films also had some sort of right to be "
9911 "able to sell the films that they had bought from Disney. Disney's claim in "
9912 "court was that the stores were allowed to sell the films and they were "
9913 "permitted to list the titles of the films they were selling, but they were "
9914 "not allowed to show clips of the films as a way of selling them without "
9915 "Disney's permission."
9918 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9919 #: freeculture.xml:7333
9921 "Now, you might think this is a close case, and I think the courts would "
9922 "consider it a close case. My point here is to map the change that gives "
9923 "Disney this power. Before the Internet, Disney couldn't really control how "
9924 "people got access to their content. Once a video was in the marketplace, the "
9925 "<quote>first-sale doctrine</quote> would free the seller to use the video as "
9926 "he wished, including showing portions of it in order to engender sales of "
9927 "the entire movie video. But with the Internet, it becomes possible for "
9928 "Disney to centralize control over access to this content. Because each use "
9929 "of the Internet produces a copy, use on the Internet becomes subject to the "
9930 "copyright owner's control. The technology expands the scope of effective "
9931 "control, because the technology builds a copy into every transaction."
9934 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9935 #: freeculture.xml:7346
9936 msgid "Barnes & Noble"
9940 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9941 #: freeculture.xml:7349
9943 "No doubt, a potential is not yet an abuse, and so the potential for control "
9944 "is not yet the abuse of control. Barnes & Noble has the right to say you "
9945 "can't touch a book in their store; property law gives them that right. But "
9946 "the market effectively protects against that abuse. If Barnes & Noble "
9947 "banned browsing, then consumers would choose other bookstores. Competition "
9948 "protects against the extremes. And it may well be (my argument so far does "
9949 "not even question this) that competition would prevent any similar danger "
9950 "when it comes to copyright. Sure, publishers exercising the rights that "
9951 "authors have assigned to them might try to regulate how many times you read "
9952 "a book, or try to stop you from sharing the book with anyone. But in a "
9953 "competitive market such as the book market, the dangers of this happening "
9957 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9958 #: freeculture.xml:7364
9960 "Again, my aim so far is simply to map the changes that this changed "
9961 "architecture enables. Enabling technology to enforce the control of "
9962 "copyright means that the control of copyright is no longer defined by "
9963 "balanced policy. The control of copyright is simply what private owners "
9964 "choose. In some contexts, at least, that fact is harmless. But in some "
9965 "contexts it is a recipe for disaster."
9968 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
9969 #: freeculture.xml:7373
9970 msgid "Architecture and Law: Force"
9973 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9974 #: freeculture.xml:7375
9976 "The disappearance of unregulated uses would be change enough, but a second "
9977 "important change brought about by the Internet magnifies its "
9978 "significance. This second change does not affect the reach of copyright "
9979 "regulation; it affects how such regulation is enforced."
9982 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9983 #: freeculture.xml:7381
9985 "In the world before digital technology, it was generally the law that "
9986 "controlled whether and how someone was regulated by copyright law. The law, "
9987 "meaning a court, meaning a judge: In the end, it was a human, trained in the "
9988 "tradition of the law and cognizant of the balances that tradition embraced, "
9989 "who said whether and how the law would restrict your freedom."
9992 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9993 #: freeculture.xml:7388
9997 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
9998 #: freeculture.xml:7390 freeculture.xml:7573
9999 msgid "Marx Brothers"
10003 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10004 #: freeculture.xml:7404
10006 "See David Lange, <quote>Recognizing the Public Domain,</quote> "
10007 "<citetitle>Law and Contemporary Problems</citetitle> 44 (1981): "
10011 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10012 #: freeculture.xml:7396
10014 "There's a famous story about a battle between the Marx Brothers and Warner "
10015 "Brothers. The Marxes intended to make a parody of "
10016 "<citetitle>Casablanca</citetitle>. Warner Brothers objected. They wrote a "
10017 "nasty letter to the Marxes, warning them that there would be serious legal "
10018 "consequences if they went forward with their plan.<placeholder "
10019 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
10022 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10023 #: freeculture.xml:7413
10025 "Ibid. See also Vaidhyanathan, <citetitle>Copyrights and "
10026 "Copywrongs</citetitle>, 1–3. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
10030 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10031 #: freeculture.xml:7409
10033 "This led the Marx Brothers to respond in kind. They warned Warner Brothers "
10034 "that the Marx Brothers <quote>were brothers long before you "
10035 "were.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The Marx Brothers "
10036 "therefore owned the word <citetitle>brothers</citetitle>, and if Warner "
10037 "Brothers insisted on trying to control <citetitle>Casablanca</citetitle>, "
10038 "then the Marx Brothers would insist on control over "
10039 "<citetitle>brothers</citetitle>."
10042 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10043 #: freeculture.xml:7423
10045 "An absurd and hollow threat, of course, because Warner Brothers, like the "
10046 "Marx Brothers, knew that no court would ever enforce such a silly "
10047 "claim. This extremism was irrelevant to the real freedoms anyone (including "
10048 "Warner Brothers) enjoyed."
10051 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10052 #: freeculture.xml:7433
10054 "On the Internet, however, there is no check on silly rules, because on the "
10055 "Internet, increasingly, rules are enforced not by a human but by a machine: "
10056 "Increasingly, the rules of copyright law, as interpreted by the copyright "
10057 "owner, get built into the technology that delivers copyrighted content. It "
10058 "is code, rather than law, that rules. And the problem with code regulations "
10059 "is that, unlike law, code has no shame. Code would not get the humor of the "
10060 "Marx Brothers. The consequence of that is not at all funny."
10063 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10064 #: freeculture.xml:7446
10065 msgid "Adobe eBook Reader"
10068 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10069 #: freeculture.xml:7449
10070 msgid "Consider the life of my Adobe eBook Reader."
10073 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10074 #: freeculture.xml:7452
10076 "An e-book is a book delivered in electronic form. An Adobe eBook is not a "
10077 "book that Adobe has published; Adobe simply produces the software that "
10078 "publishers use to deliver e-books. It provides the technology, and the "
10079 "publisher delivers the content by using the technology."
10082 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10083 #: freeculture.xml:7459
10084 msgid "On the next page is a picture of an old version of my Adobe eBook Reader."
10088 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10089 #: freeculture.xml:7463
10091 "As you can see, I have a small collection of e-books within this e-book "
10092 "library. Some of these books reproduce content that is in the public domain: "
10093 "<citetitle>Middlemarch</citetitle>, for example, is in the public domain. "
10094 "Some of them reproduce content that is not in the public domain: My own book "
10095 "<citetitle>The Future of Ideas</citetitle> is not yet within the public "
10096 "domain. Consider <citetitle>Middlemarch</citetitle> first. If you click on "
10097 "my e-book copy of <citetitle>Middlemarch</citetitle>, you'll see a fancy "
10098 "cover, and then a button at the bottom called Permissions."
10101 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
10102 #: freeculture.xml:7476
10103 msgid "Picture of an old version of Adobe eBook Reader"
10106 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10107 #: freeculture.xml:7477
10108 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1611.png\"></graphic>"
10111 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10112 #: freeculture.xml:7480
10114 "If you click on the Permissions button, you'll see a list of the permissions "
10115 "that the publisher purports to grant with this book."
10118 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
10119 #: freeculture.xml:7484
10120 msgid "List of the permissions that the publisher purports to grant."
10123 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10124 #: freeculture.xml:7485
10125 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1612.png\"></graphic>"
10129 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10130 #: freeculture.xml:7489
10132 "According to my eBook Reader, I have the permission to copy to the clipboard "
10133 "of the computer ten text selections every ten days. (So far, I've copied no "
10134 "text to the clipboard.) I also have the permission to print ten pages from "
10135 "the book every ten days. Lastly, I have the permission to use the Read Aloud "
10136 "button to hear <citetitle>Middlemarch</citetitle> read aloud through the "
10140 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
10141 #: freeculture.xml:7499
10145 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
10146 #: freeculture.xml:7500
10147 msgid "<citetitle>Politics</citetitle>, (Aristotle)"
10150 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10151 #: freeculture.xml:7497
10153 "Here's the e-book for another work in the public domain (including the "
10154 "translation): Aristotle's <citetitle>Politics</citetitle>. <placeholder "
10155 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
10158 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
10159 #: freeculture.xml:7503
10160 msgid "E-book of Aristotle;s <quote>Politics</quote>"
10163 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10164 #: freeculture.xml:7504
10165 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1621.png\"></graphic>"
10168 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10169 #: freeculture.xml:7507
10171 "According to its permissions, no printing or copying is permitted at "
10172 "all. But fortunately, you can use the Read Aloud button to hear the book."
10175 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
10176 #: freeculture.xml:7512
10177 msgid "List of the permissions for Aristotle;s <quote>Politics</quote>."
10180 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10181 #: freeculture.xml:7513
10182 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1622.png\"></graphic>"
10185 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10186 #: freeculture.xml:7516
10188 "Finally (and most embarrassingly), here are the permissions for the original "
10189 "e-book version of my last book, <citetitle>The Future of Ideas</citetitle>:"
10192 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
10193 #: freeculture.xml:7522
10194 msgid "List of the permissions for <quote>The Future of Ideas</quote>."
10197 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10198 #: freeculture.xml:7523
10199 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1631.png\"></graphic>"
10202 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10203 #: freeculture.xml:7526
10204 msgid "No copying, no printing, and don't you dare try to listen to this book!"
10208 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10209 #: freeculture.xml:7536
10211 "In principle, a contract might impose a requirement on me. I might, for "
10212 "example, buy a book from you that includes a contract that says I will read "
10213 "it only three times, or that I promise to read it three times. But that "
10214 "obligation (and the limits for creating that obligation) would come from the "
10215 "contract, not from copyright law, and the obligations of contract would not "
10216 "necessarily pass to anyone who subsequently acquired the book."
10219 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10220 #: freeculture.xml:7529
10222 "Now, the Adobe eBook Reader calls these controls "
10223 "<quote>permissions</quote>— as if the publisher has the power to "
10224 "control how you use these works. For works under copyright, the copyright "
10225 "owner certainly does have the power—up to the limits of the copyright "
10226 "law. But for work not under copyright, there is no such copyright "
10227 "power.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> When my e-book of "
10228 "<citetitle>Middlemarch</citetitle> says I have the permission to copy only "
10229 "ten text selections into the memory every ten days, what that really means "
10230 "is that the eBook Reader has enabled the publisher to control how I use the "
10231 "book on my computer, far beyond the control that the law would enable."
10234 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10235 #: freeculture.xml:7551
10237 "The control comes instead from the code—from the technology within "
10238 "which the e-book <quote>lives.</quote> Though the e-book says that these are "
10239 "permissions, they are not the sort of <quote>permissions</quote> that most "
10240 "of us deal with. When a teenager gets <quote>permission</quote> to stay out "
10241 "till midnight, she knows (unless she's Cinderella) that she can stay out "
10242 "till 2 A.M., but will suffer a punishment if she's caught. But when the "
10243 "Adobe eBook Reader says I have the permission to make ten copies of the text "
10244 "into the computer's memory, that means that after I've made ten copies, the "
10245 "computer will not make any more. The same with the printing restrictions: "
10246 "After ten pages, the eBook Reader will not print any more pages. It's the "
10247 "same with the silly restriction that says that you can't use the Read Aloud "
10248 "button to read my book aloud—it's not that the company will sue you if "
10249 "you do; instead, if you push the Read Aloud button with my book, the machine "
10250 "simply won't read aloud."
10253 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10254 #: freeculture.xml:7569
10256 "These are <emphasis>controls</emphasis>, not permissions. Imagine a world "
10257 "where the Marx Brothers sold word processing software that, when you tried "
10258 "to type <quote>Warner Brothers,</quote> erased <quote>Brothers</quote> from "
10259 "the sentence. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
10262 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10263 #: freeculture.xml:7576
10265 "This is the future of copyright law: not so much copyright "
10266 "<emphasis>law</emphasis> as copyright <emphasis>code</emphasis>. The "
10267 "controls over access to content will not be controls that are ratified by "
10268 "courts; the controls over access to content will be controls that are coded "
10269 "by programmers. And whereas the controls that are built into the law are "
10270 "always to be checked by a judge, the controls that are built into the "
10271 "technology have no similar built-in check."
10274 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10275 #: freeculture.xml:7585
10277 "How significant is this? Isn't it always possible to get around the controls "
10278 "built into the technology? Software used to be sold with technologies that "
10279 "limited the ability of users to copy the software, but those were trivial "
10280 "protections to defeat. Why won't it be trivial to defeat these protections "
10284 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10285 #: freeculture.xml:7592
10287 "We've only scratched the surface of this story. Return to the Adobe eBook "
10291 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
10292 #: freeculture.xml:7602
10293 msgid "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Carroll)"
10296 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10297 #: freeculture.xml:7596
10299 "Early in the life of the Adobe eBook Reader, Adobe suffered a public "
10300 "relations nightmare. Among the books that you could download for free on the "
10301 "Adobe site was a copy of <citetitle>Alice's Adventures in "
10302 "Wonderland</citetitle>. This wonderful book is in the public domain. Yet "
10303 "when you clicked on Permissions for that book, you got the following report: "
10304 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
10307 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
10308 #: freeculture.xml:7605
10309 msgid "List of the permissions for <quote>Alice's Adventures in Wonderland</quote>."
10312 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10313 #: freeculture.xml:7607
10314 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1641.png\"></graphic>"
10317 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10318 #: freeculture.xml:7611
10320 "Here was a public domain children's book that you were not allowed to copy, "
10321 "not allowed to lend, not allowed to give, and, as the "
10322 "<quote>permissions</quote> indicated, not allowed to <quote>read "
10326 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10327 #: freeculture.xml:7616
10329 "The public relations nightmare attached to that final permission. For the "
10330 "text did not say that you were not permitted to use the Read Aloud button; "
10331 "it said you did not have the permission to read the book aloud. That led "
10332 "some people to think that Adobe was restricting the right of parents, for "
10333 "example, to read the book to their children, which seemed, to say the least, "
10337 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10338 #: freeculture.xml:7624
10340 "Adobe responded quickly that it was absurd to think that it was trying to "
10341 "restrict the right to read a book aloud. Obviously it was only restricting "
10342 "the ability to use the Read Aloud button to have the book read aloud. But "
10343 "the question Adobe never did answer is this: Would Adobe thus agree that a "
10344 "consumer was free to use software to hack around the restrictions built into "
10345 "the eBook Reader? If some company (call it Elcomsoft) developed a program to "
10346 "disable the technological protection built into an Adobe eBook so that a "
10347 "blind person, say, could use a computer to read the book aloud, would Adobe "
10348 "agree that such a use of an eBook Reader was fair? Adobe didn't answer "
10349 "because the answer, however absurd it might seem, is no."
10352 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10353 #: freeculture.xml:7637
10355 "The point is not to blame Adobe. Indeed, Adobe is among the most innovative "
10356 "companies developing strategies to balance open access to content with "
10357 "incentives for companies to innovate. But Adobe's technology enables "
10358 "control, and Adobe has an incentive to defend this control. That incentive "
10359 "is understandable, yet what it creates is often crazy."
10362 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10363 #: freeculture.xml:7647
10365 "To see the point in a particularly absurd context, consider a favorite story "
10366 "of mine that makes the same point."
10369 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10370 #: freeculture.xml:7651 freeculture.xml:7801 freeculture.xml:7872 freeculture.xml:7982
10371 msgid "Aibo robotic dog"
10374 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10375 #: freeculture.xml:7654 freeculture.xml:7804 freeculture.xml:7873 freeculture.xml:7983
10376 msgid "robotic dog"
10379 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10380 #: freeculture.xml:7657 freeculture.xml:7807 freeculture.xml:7875 freeculture.xml:7985
10384 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
10385 #: freeculture.xml:7658 freeculture.xml:7808 freeculture.xml:7876 freeculture.xml:7986
10386 msgid "Aibo robotic dog produced by"
10389 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10390 #: freeculture.xml:7661
10392 "Consider the robotic dog made by Sony named <quote>Aibo.</quote> The Aibo "
10393 "learns tricks, cuddles, and follows you around. It eats only electricity and "
10394 "that doesn't leave that much of a mess (at least in your house)."
10397 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10398 #: freeculture.xml:7666
10400 "The Aibo is expensive and popular. Fans from around the world have set up "
10401 "clubs to trade stories. One fan in particular set up a Web site to enable "
10402 "information about the Aibo dog to be shared. This fan set <beginpage "
10403 "pagenum=\"165\"/> up aibopet.com (and aibohack.com, but that resolves to the "
10404 "same site), and on that site he provided information about how to teach an "
10405 "Aibo to do tricks in addition to the ones Sony had taught it."
10408 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10409 #: freeculture.xml:7675
10411 "<quote>Teach</quote> here has a special meaning. Aibos are just cute "
10412 "computers. You teach a computer how to do something by programming it "
10413 "differently. So to say that aibopet.com was giving information about how to "
10414 "teach the dog to do new tricks is just to say that aibopet.com was giving "
10415 "information to users of the Aibo pet about how to hack their computer "
10416 "<quote>dog</quote> to make it do new tricks (thus, aibohack.com)."
10419 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10420 #: freeculture.xml:7682
10424 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10425 #: freeculture.xml:7684
10427 "If you're not a programmer or don't know many programmers, the word "
10428 "<citetitle>hack</citetitle> has a particularly unfriendly "
10429 "connotation. Nonprogrammers hack bushes or weeds. Nonprogrammers in horror "
10430 "movies do even worse. But to programmers, or coders, as I call them, "
10431 "<citetitle>hack</citetitle> is a much more positive "
10432 "term. <citetitle>Hack</citetitle> just means code that enables the program "
10433 "to do something it wasn't originally intended or enabled to do. If you buy a "
10434 "new printer for an old computer, you might find the old computer doesn't "
10435 "run, or <quote>drive,</quote> the printer. If you discovered that, you'd "
10436 "later be happy to discover a hack on the Net by someone who has written a "
10437 "driver to enable the computer to drive the printer you just bought."
10440 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10441 #: freeculture.xml:7698
10443 "Some hacks are easy. Some are unbelievably hard. Hackers as a community like "
10444 "to challenge themselves and others with increasingly difficult "
10445 "tasks. There's a certain respect that goes with the talent to hack "
10446 "well. There's a well-deserved respect that goes with the talent to hack "
10450 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10451 #: freeculture.xml:7705
10453 "The Aibo fan was displaying a bit of both when he hacked the program and "
10454 "offered to the world a bit of code that would enable the Aibo to dance "
10455 "jazz. The dog wasn't programmed to dance jazz. It was a clever bit of "
10456 "tinkering that turned the dog into a more talented creature than Sony had "
10461 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10462 #: freeculture.xml:7715
10464 "I've told this story in many contexts, both inside and outside the United "
10465 "States. Once I was asked by a puzzled member of the audience, is it "
10466 "permissible for a dog to dance jazz in the United States? We forget that "
10467 "stories about the backcountry still flow across much of the world. So let's "
10468 "just be clear before we continue: It's not a crime anywhere (anymore) to "
10469 "dance jazz. Nor is it a crime to teach your dog to dance jazz. Nor should it "
10470 "be a crime (though we don't have a lot to go on here) to teach your robot "
10471 "dog to dance jazz. Dancing jazz is a completely legal activity. One imagines "
10472 "that the owner of aibopet.com thought, <emphasis>What possible problem could "
10473 "there be with teaching a robot dog to dance?</emphasis>"
10476 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10477 #: freeculture.xml:7731
10479 "Let's put the dog to sleep for a minute, and turn to a pony show— not "
10480 "literally a pony show, but rather a paper that a Princeton academic named Ed "
10481 "Felten prepared for a conference. This Princeton academic is well known and "
10482 "respected. He was hired by the government in the Microsoft case to test "
10483 "Microsoft's claims about what could and could not be done with its own "
10484 "code. In that trial, he demonstrated both his brilliance and his "
10485 "coolness. Under heavy badgering by Microsoft lawyers, Ed Felten stood his "
10486 "ground. He was not about to be bullied into being silent about something he "
10490 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10491 #: freeculture.xml:7754 freeculture.xml:10266
10492 msgid "Electronic Frontier Foundation"
10495 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10496 #: freeculture.xml:7744
10498 "See Pamela Samuelson, <quote>Anticircumvention Rules: Threat to "
10499 "Science,</quote> <citetitle>Science</citetitle> 293 (2001): 2028; Brendan "
10500 "I. Koerner, <quote>Play Dead: Sony Muzzles the Techies Who Teach a Robot Dog "
10501 "New Tricks,</quote> <citetitle>American Prospect</citetitle>, January 2002; "
10502 "<quote>Court Dismisses Computer Scientists' Challenge to DMCA,</quote> "
10503 "<citetitle>Intellectual Property Litigation Reporter</citetitle>, 11 "
10504 "December 2001; Bill Holland, <quote>Copyright Act Raising Free-Speech "
10505 "Concerns,</quote> <citetitle>Billboard</citetitle>, May 2001; Janelle Brown, "
10506 "<quote>Is the RIAA Running Scared?</quote> Salon.com, April 2001; Electronic "
10507 "Frontier Foundation, <quote>Frequently Asked Questions about "
10508 "<citetitle>Felten and USENIX</citetitle> v. <citetitle>RIAA</citetitle> "
10509 "Legal Case,</quote> available at <ulink "
10510 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #27</ulink>. <placeholder "
10511 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
10514 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10515 #: freeculture.xml:7742
10517 "But Felten's bravery was really tested in April 2001.<placeholder "
10518 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> He and a group of colleagues were working on a "
10519 "paper to be submitted at conference. The paper was intended to describe the "
10520 "weakness in an encryption system being developed by the Secure Digital Music "
10521 "Initiative as a technique to control the distribution of music."
10524 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10525 #: freeculture.xml:7762
10527 "The SDMI coalition had as its goal a technology to enable content owners to "
10528 "exercise much better control over their content than the Internet, as it "
10529 "originally stood, granted them. Using encryption, SDMI hoped to develop a "
10530 "standard that would allow the content owner to say <quote>this music cannot "
10531 "be copied,</quote> and have a computer respect that command. The technology "
10532 "was to be part of a <quote>trusted system</quote> of control that would get "
10533 "content owners to trust the system of the Internet much more."
10536 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10537 #: freeculture.xml:7772
10539 "When SDMI thought it was close to a standard, it set up a competition. In "
10540 "exchange for providing contestants with the code to an SDMI-encrypted bit of "
10541 "content, contestants were to try to crack it and, if they did, report the "
10542 "problems to the consortium."
10546 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10547 #: freeculture.xml:7779
10549 "Felten and his team figured out the encryption system quickly. He and the "
10550 "team saw the weakness of this system as a type: Many encryption systems "
10551 "would suffer the same weakness, and Felten and his team thought it "
10552 "worthwhile to point this out to those who study encryption."
10555 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10556 #: freeculture.xml:7785
10558 "Let's review just what Felten was doing. Again, this is the United "
10559 "States. We have a principle of free speech. We have this principle not just "
10560 "because it is the law, but also because it is a really great idea. A "
10561 "strongly protected tradition of free speech is likely to encourage a wide "
10562 "range of criticism. That criticism is likely, in turn, to improve the "
10563 "systems or people or ideas criticized."
10566 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10567 #: freeculture.xml:7793
10569 "What Felten and his colleagues were doing was publishing a paper describing "
10570 "the weakness in a technology. They were not spreading free music, or "
10571 "building and deploying this technology. The paper was an academic essay, "
10572 "unintelligible to most people. But it clearly showed the weakness in the "
10573 "SDMI system, and why SDMI would not, as presently constituted, succeed."
10576 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10577 #: freeculture.xml:7811
10579 "What links these two, aibopet.com and Felten, is the letters they then "
10580 "received. Aibopet.com received a letter from Sony about the aibopet.com "
10581 "hack. Though a jazz-dancing dog is perfectly legal, Sony wrote:"
10584 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
10585 #: freeculture.xml:7818
10587 "Your site contains information providing the means to circumvent AIBO-ware's "
10588 "copy protection protocol constituting a violation of the anti-circumvention "
10589 "provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act."
10592 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10593 #: freeculture.xml:7827
10595 "And though an academic paper describing the weakness in a system of "
10596 "encryption should also be perfectly legal, Felten received a letter from an "
10597 "RIAA lawyer that read:"
10601 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
10602 #: freeculture.xml:7833
10604 "Any disclosure of information gained from participating in the Public "
10605 "Challenge would be outside the scope of activities permitted by the "
10606 "Agreement and could subject you and your research team to actions under the "
10607 "Digital Millennium Copyright Act (<quote>DMCA</quote>)."
10610 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10611 #: freeculture.xml:7841
10613 "In both cases, this weirdly Orwellian law was invoked to control the spread "
10614 "of information. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act made spreading such "
10615 "information an offense."
10618 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10619 #: freeculture.xml:7846
10621 "The DMCA was enacted as a response to copyright owners' first fear about "
10622 "cyberspace. The fear was that copyright control was effectively dead; the "
10623 "response was to find technologies that might compensate. These new "
10624 "technologies would be copyright protection technologies— technologies "
10625 "to control the replication and distribution of copyrighted material. They "
10626 "were designed as <emphasis>code</emphasis> to modify the original "
10627 "<emphasis>code</emphasis> of the Internet, to reestablish some protection "
10628 "for copyright owners."
10631 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10632 #: freeculture.xml:7857
10634 "The DMCA was a bit of law intended to back up the protection of this code "
10635 "designed to protect copyrighted material. It was, we could say, "
10636 "<emphasis>legal code</emphasis> intended to buttress <emphasis>software "
10637 "code</emphasis> which itself was intended to support the <emphasis>legal "
10638 "code of copyright</emphasis>."
10641 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10642 #: freeculture.xml:7864
10644 "But the DMCA was not designed merely to protect copyrighted works to the "
10645 "extent copyright law protected them. Its protection, that is, did not end at "
10646 "the line that copyright law drew. The DMCA regulated devices that were "
10647 "designed to circumvent copyright protection measures. It was designed to ban "
10648 "those devices, whether or not the use of the copyrighted material made "
10649 "possible by that circumvention would have been a copyright violation."
10653 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10654 #: freeculture.xml:7879
10656 "Aibopet.com and Felten make the point. The Aibo hack circumvented a "
10657 "copyright protection system for the purpose of enabling the dog to dance "
10658 "jazz. That enablement no doubt involved the use of copyrighted material. But "
10659 "as aibopet.com's site was noncommercial, and the use did not enable "
10660 "subsequent copyright infringements, there's no doubt that aibopet.com's hack "
10661 "was fair use of Sony's copyrighted material. Yet fair use is not a defense "
10662 "to the DMCA. The question is not whether the use of the copyrighted material "
10663 "was a copyright violation. The question is whether a copyright protection "
10664 "system was circumvented."
10667 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10668 #: freeculture.xml:7891
10670 "The threat against Felten was more attenuated, but it followed the same line "
10671 "of reasoning. By publishing a paper describing how a copyright protection "
10672 "system could be circumvented, the RIAA lawyer suggested, Felten himself was "
10673 "distributing a circumvention technology. Thus, even though he was not "
10674 "himself infringing anyone's copyright, his academic paper was enabling "
10675 "others to infringe others' copyright."
10678 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
10679 #: freeculture.xml:7898 freeculture.xml:7931
10680 msgid "Rogers, Fred"
10683 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10684 #: freeculture.xml:7908 freeculture.xml:7944 freeculture.xml:7972
10685 msgid "Conrad, Paul"
10688 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10689 #: freeculture.xml:7900
10691 "The bizarreness of these arguments is captured in a cartoon drawn in 1981 by "
10692 "Paul Conrad. At that time, a court in California had held that the VCR could "
10693 "be banned because it was a copyright-infringing technology: It enabled "
10694 "consumers to copy films without the permission of the copyright owner. No "
10695 "doubt there were uses of the technology that were legal: Fred Rogers, aka "
10696 "<quote><citetitle>Mr. Rogers</citetitle>,</quote> for example, had testified "
10697 "in that case that he wanted people to feel free to tape Mr. Rogers' "
10698 "Neighborhood. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
10701 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
10702 #: freeculture.xml:7927
10704 "<citetitle>Sony Corporation of America</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Universal "
10705 "City Studios, Inc</citetitle>., 464 U.S. 417, 455 fn. 27 (1984). Rogers "
10706 "never changed his view about the VCR. See James Lardner, <citetitle>Fast "
10707 "Forward: Hollywood, the Japanese, and the Onslaught of the VCR</citetitle> "
10708 "(New York: W. W. Norton, 1987), 270–71. <placeholder "
10709 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
10712 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
10713 #: freeculture.xml:7912
10715 "Some public stations, as well as commercial stations, program the "
10716 "<quote>Neighborhood</quote> at hours when some children cannot use it. I "
10717 "think that it's a real service to families to be able to record such "
10718 "programs and show them at appropriate times. I have always felt that with "
10719 "the advent of all of this new technology that allows people to tape the "
10720 "<quote>Neighborhood</quote> off-the-air, and I'm speaking for the "
10721 "<quote>Neighborhood</quote> because that's what I produce, that they then "
10722 "become much more active in the programming of their family's television "
10723 "life. Very frankly, I am opposed to people being programmed by others. My "
10724 "whole approach in broadcasting has always been <quote>You are an important "
10725 "person just the way you are. You can make healthy decisions.</quote> Maybe "
10726 "I'm going on too long, but I just feel that anything that allows a person to "
10727 "be more active in the control of his or her life, in a healthy way, is "
10728 "important.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
10732 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10733 #: freeculture.xml:7937
10735 "Even though there were uses that were legal, because there were some uses "
10736 "that were illegal, the court held the companies producing the VCR "
10740 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10741 #: freeculture.xml:7942
10743 "This led Conrad to draw the cartoon below, which we can adopt to the DMCA. "
10744 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
10747 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10748 #: freeculture.xml:7947
10749 msgid "No argument I have can top this picture, but let me try to get close."
10752 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10753 #: freeculture.xml:7950
10755 "The anticircumvention provisions of the DMCA target copyright circumvention "
10756 "technologies. Circumvention technologies can be used for different "
10757 "ends. They can be used, for example, to enable massive pirating of "
10758 "copyrighted material—a bad end. Or they can be used to enable the use "
10759 "of particular copyrighted materials in ways that would be considered fair "
10760 "use—a good end."
10763 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10764 #: freeculture.xml:7958
10769 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10770 #: freeculture.xml:7961
10772 "A handgun can be used to shoot a police officer or a child. Most would agree "
10773 "such a use is bad. Or a handgun can be used for target practice or to "
10774 "protect against an intruder. At least some would say that such a use would "
10775 "be good. It, too, is a technology that has both good and bad uses."
10778 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
10779 #: freeculture.xml:7969
10780 msgid "VCR/handgun cartoon."
10783 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10784 #: freeculture.xml:7970
10785 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1711.png\"></graphic>"
10788 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10789 #: freeculture.xml:7974
10791 "The obvious point of Conrad's cartoon is the weirdness of a world where guns "
10792 "are legal, despite the harm they can do, while VCRs (and circumvention "
10793 "technologies) are illegal. Flash: <emphasis>No one ever died from copyright "
10794 "circumvention</emphasis>. Yet the law bans circumvention technologies "
10795 "absolutely, despite the potential that they might do some good, but permits "
10796 "guns, despite the obvious and tragic harm they do."
10799 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10800 #: freeculture.xml:7989
10802 "The Aibo and RIAA examples demonstrate how copyright owners are changing the "
10803 "balance that copyright law grants. Using code, copyright owners restrict "
10804 "fair use; using the DMCA, they punish those who would attempt to evade the "
10805 "restrictions on fair use that they impose through code. Technology becomes a "
10806 "means by which fair use can be erased; the law of the DMCA backs up that "
10810 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10811 #: freeculture.xml:7997
10813 "This is how <emphasis>code</emphasis> becomes <emphasis>law</emphasis>. The "
10814 "controls built into the technology of copy and access protection become "
10815 "rules the violation of which is also a violation of the law. In this way, "
10816 "the code extends the law—increasing its regulation, even if the "
10817 "subject it regulates (activities that would otherwise plainly constitute "
10818 "fair use) is beyond the reach of the law. Code becomes law; code extends the "
10819 "law; code thus extends the control that copyright owners effect—at "
10820 "least for those copyright holders with the lawyers who can write the nasty "
10821 "letters that Felten and aibopet.com received."
10824 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10825 #: freeculture.xml:8009
10827 "There is one final aspect of the interaction between architecture and law "
10828 "that contributes to the force of copyright's regulation. This is the ease "
10829 "with which infringements of the law can be detected. For contrary to the "
10830 "rhetoric common at the birth of cyberspace that on the Internet, no one "
10831 "knows you're a dog, increasingly, given changing technologies deployed on "
10832 "the Internet, it is easy to find the dog who committed a legal wrong. The "
10833 "technologies of the Internet are open to snoops as well as sharers, and the "
10834 "snoops are increasingly good at tracking down the identity of those who "
10835 "violate the rules."
10839 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10840 #: freeculture.xml:8028
10842 "For an early and prescient analysis, see Rebecca Tushnet, <quote>Legal "
10843 "Fictions, Copyright, Fan Fiction, and a New Common Law,</quote> "
10844 "<citetitle>Loyola of Los Angeles Entertainment Law Journal</citetitle> 17 "
10848 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10849 #: freeculture.xml:8022
10851 "For example, imagine you were part of a <citetitle>Star Trek</citetitle> fan "
10852 "club. You gathered every month to share trivia, and maybe to enact a kind of "
10853 "fan fiction about the show. One person would play Spock, another, Captain "
10854 "Kirk. The characters would begin with a plot from a real story, then simply "
10855 "continue it.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
10858 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10859 #: freeculture.xml:8034
10861 "Before the Internet, this was, in effect, a totally unregulated activity. "
10862 "No matter what happened inside your club room, you would never be interfered "
10863 "with by the copyright police. You were free in that space to do as you "
10864 "wished with this part of our culture. You were allowed to build on it as you "
10865 "wished without fear of legal control."
10868 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10869 #: freeculture.xml:8041
10871 "But if you moved your club onto the Internet, and made it generally "
10872 "available for others to join, the story would be very different. Bots "
10873 "scouring the Net for trademark and copyright infringement would quickly find "
10874 "your site. Your posting of fan fiction, depending upon the ownership of the "
10875 "series that you're depicting, could well inspire a lawyer's threat. And "
10876 "ignoring the lawyer's threat would be extremely costly indeed. The law of "
10877 "copyright is extremely efficient. The penalties are severe, and the process "
10881 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10882 #: freeculture.xml:8051
10884 "This change in the effective force of the law is caused by a change in the "
10885 "ease with which the law can be enforced. That change too shifts the law's "
10886 "balance radically. It is as if your car transmitted the speed at which you "
10887 "traveled at every moment that you drove; that would be just one step before "
10888 "the state started issuing tickets based upon the data you transmitted. That "
10889 "is, in effect, what is happening here."
10892 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
10893 #: freeculture.xml:8060
10894 msgid "Market: Concentration"
10898 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10899 #: freeculture.xml:8062
10901 "So copyright's duration has increased dramatically—tripled in the past "
10902 "thirty years. And copyright's scope has increased as well—from "
10903 "regulating only publishers to now regulating just about everyone. And "
10904 "copyright's reach has changed, as every action becomes a copy and hence "
10905 "presumptively regulated. And as technologists find better ways to control "
10906 "the use of content, and as copyright is increasingly enforced through "
10907 "technology, copyright's force changes, too. Misuse is easier to find and "
10908 "easier to control. This regulation of the creative process, which began as a "
10909 "tiny regulation governing a tiny part of the market for creative work, has "
10910 "become the single most important regulator of creativity there is. It is a "
10911 "massive expansion in the scope of the government's control over innovation "
10912 "and creativity; it would be totally unrecognizable to those who gave birth "
10913 "to copyright's control."
10916 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10917 #: freeculture.xml:8080
10919 "Still, in my view, all of these changes would not matter much if it weren't "
10920 "for one more change that we must also consider. This is a change that is in "
10921 "some sense the most familiar, though its significance and scope are not well "
10922 "understood. It is the one that creates precisely the reason to be concerned "
10923 "about all the other changes I have described."
10926 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10927 #: freeculture.xml:8087
10929 "This is the change in the concentration and integration of the media. In "
10930 "the past twenty years, the nature of media ownership has undergone a radical "
10931 "alteration, caused by changes in legal rules governing the media. Before "
10932 "this change happened, the different forms of media were owned by separate "
10933 "media companies. Now, the media is increasingly owned by only a few "
10934 "companies. Indeed, after the changes that the FCC announced in June 2003, "
10935 "most expect that within a few years, we will live in a world where just "
10936 "three companies control more than percent of the media."
10939 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10940 #: freeculture.xml:8098
10941 msgid "These changes are of two sorts: the scope of concentration, and its nature."
10945 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10946 #: freeculture.xml:8106
10948 "FCC Oversight: Hearing Before the Senate Commerce, Science and "
10949 "Transportation Committee, 108th Cong., 1st sess. (22 May 2003) (statement "
10950 "of Senator John McCain)."
10954 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10955 #: freeculture.xml:8113
10957 "Lynette Holloway, <quote>Despite a Marketing Blitz, CD Sales Continue to "
10958 "Slide,</quote> <citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 23 December 2002."
10962 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10963 #: freeculture.xml:8119
10965 "Molly Ivins, <quote>Media Consolidation Must Be Stopped,</quote> "
10966 "<citetitle>Charleston Gazette</citetitle>, 31 May 2003."
10969 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
10970 #: freeculture.xml:8122
10974 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
10975 #: freeculture.xml:8123 freeculture.xml:9480
10979 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
10980 #: freeculture.xml:8124
10981 msgid "McCain, John"
10984 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
10985 #: freeculture.xml:8125 freeculture.xml:9481
10986 msgid "Universal Music Group"
10989 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
10990 #: freeculture.xml:8126
10991 msgid "Warner Music Group"
10994 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10995 #: freeculture.xml:8102
10997 "Changes in scope are the easier ones to describe. As Senator John McCain "
10998 "summarized the data produced in the FCC's review of media ownership, "
10999 "<quote>five companies control 85 percent of our media "
11000 "sources.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The five recording "
11001 "labels of Universal Music Group, BMG, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music "
11002 "Group, and EMI control 84.8 percent of the U.S. music market.<placeholder "
11003 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> The <quote>five largest cable companies pipe "
11004 "programming to 74 percent of the cable subscribers "
11005 "nationwide.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder "
11006 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"4\"/> "
11007 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"5\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
11008 "id=\"6\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"7\"/>"
11012 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11013 #: freeculture.xml:8129
11015 "The story with radio is even more dramatic. Before deregulation, the "
11016 "nation's largest radio broadcasting conglomerate owned fewer than "
11017 "seventy-five stations. Today <emphasis>one</emphasis> company owns more than "
11018 "1,200 stations. During that period of consolidation, the total number of "
11019 "radio owners dropped by 34 percent. Today, in most markets, the two largest "
11020 "broadcasters control 74 percent of that market's revenues. Overall, just "
11021 "four companies control 90 percent of the nation's radio advertising "
11025 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11026 #: freeculture.xml:8140
11028 "Newspaper ownership is becoming more concentrated as well. Today, there are "
11029 "six hundred fewer daily newspapers in the United States than there were "
11030 "eighty years ago, and ten companies control half of the nation's "
11031 "circulation. There are twenty major newspaper publishers in the United "
11032 "States. The top ten film studios receive 99 percent of all film revenue. The "
11033 "ten largest cable companies account for 85 percent of all cable "
11034 "revenue. This is a market far from the free press the framers sought to "
11035 "protect. Indeed, it is a market that is quite well protected— by the "
11039 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
11040 #: freeculture.xml:8154 freeculture.xml:8171
11041 msgid "Fallows, James"
11044 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11045 #: freeculture.xml:8151
11047 "Concentration in size alone is one thing. The more invidious change is in "
11048 "the nature of that concentration. As author James Fallows put it in a recent "
11049 "article about Rupert Murdoch, <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
11052 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
11053 #: freeculture.xml:8169
11055 "James Fallows, <quote>The Age of Murdoch,</quote> <citetitle>Atlantic "
11056 "Monthly</citetitle> (September 2003): 89. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
11060 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
11061 #: freeculture.xml:8158
11063 "Murdoch's companies now constitute a production system unmatched in its "
11064 "integration. They supply content—Fox movies … Fox TV shows "
11065 "… Fox-controlled sports broadcasts, plus newspapers and books. They "
11066 "sell the content to the public and to advertisers—in newspapers, on "
11067 "the broadcast network, on the cable channels. And they operate the physical "
11068 "distribution system through which the content reaches the "
11069 "customers. Murdoch's satellite systems now distribute News Corp. content in "
11070 "Europe and Asia; if Murdoch becomes DirecTV's largest single owner, that "
11071 "system will serve the same function in the United States.<placeholder "
11072 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
11075 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11076 #: freeculture.xml:8176
11078 "The pattern with Murdoch is the pattern of modern media. Not just large "
11079 "companies owning many radio stations, but a few companies owning as many "
11080 "outlets of media as possible. A picture describes this pattern better than a "
11081 "thousand words could do:"
11084 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
11085 #: freeculture.xml:8182
11086 msgid "Pattern of modern media ownership."
11089 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
11090 #: freeculture.xml:8183
11091 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1761.png\"></graphic>"
11095 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11096 #: freeculture.xml:8187
11098 "Does this concentration matter? Will it affect what is made, or what is "
11099 "distributed? Or is it merely a more efficient way to produce and distribute "
11103 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11104 #: freeculture.xml:8192
11106 "My view was that concentration wouldn't matter. I thought it was nothing "
11107 "more than a more efficient financial structure. But now, after reading and "
11108 "listening to a barrage of creators try to convince me to the contrary, I am "
11109 "beginning to change my mind."
11112 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11113 #: freeculture.xml:8198
11115 "Here's a representative story that begins to suggest how this integration "
11119 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11120 #: freeculture.xml:8201
11121 msgid "Lear, Norman"
11124 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11125 #: freeculture.xml:8203 freeculture.xml:8266
11126 msgid "All in the Family"
11129 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11130 #: freeculture.xml:8205
11132 "In 1969, Norman Lear created a pilot for <citetitle>All in the "
11133 "Family</citetitle>. He took the pilot to ABC. The network didn't like it. It "
11134 "was too edgy, they told Lear. Make it again. Lear made a second pilot, more "
11135 "edgy than the first. ABC was exasperated. You're missing the point, they "
11136 "told Lear. We wanted less edgy, not more."
11140 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11141 #: freeculture.xml:8217
11143 "Leonard Hill, <quote>The Axis of Access,</quote> remarks before Weidenbaum "
11144 "Center Forum, <quote>Entertainment Economics: The Movie Industry,</quote> "
11145 "St. Louis, Missouri, 3 April 2003 (transcript of prepared remarks available "
11146 "at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #28</ulink>; for the "
11147 "Lear story, not included in the prepared remarks, see <ulink "
11148 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #29</ulink>)."
11151 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11152 #: freeculture.xml:8212
11154 "Rather than comply, Lear simply took the show elsewhere. CBS was happy to "
11155 "have the series; ABC could not stop Lear from walking. The copyrights that "
11156 "Lear held assured an independence from network control.<placeholder "
11157 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
11161 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11162 #: freeculture.xml:8228
11164 "The network did not control those copyrights because the law forbade the "
11165 "networks from controlling the content they syndicated. The law required a "
11166 "separation between the networks and the content producers; that separation "
11167 "would guarantee Lear freedom. And as late as 1992, because of these rules, "
11168 "the vast majority of prime time television—75 percent of it—was "
11169 "<quote>independent</quote> of the networks."
11173 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11174 #: freeculture.xml:8247
11176 "NewsCorp./DirecTV Merger and Media Consolidation: Hearings on Media "
11177 "Ownership Before the Senate Commerce Committee, 108th Cong., 1st "
11178 "sess. (2003) (testimony of Gene Kimmelman on behalf of Consumers Union and "
11179 "the Consumer Federation of America), available at <ulink "
11180 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #30</ulink>. Kimmelman quotes "
11181 "Victoria Riskin, president of Writers Guild of America, West, in her Remarks "
11182 "at FCC En Banc Hearing, Richmond, Virginia, 27 February 2003."
11185 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11186 #: freeculture.xml:8237
11188 "In 1994, the FCC abandoned the rules that required this independence. After "
11189 "that change, the networks quickly changed the balance. In 1985, there were "
11190 "twenty-five independent television production studios; in 2002, only five "
11191 "independent television studios remained. <quote>In 1992, only 15 percent of "
11192 "new series were produced for a network by a company it controlled. Last "
11193 "year, the percentage of shows produced by controlled companies more than "
11194 "quintupled to 77 percent.</quote> <quote>In 1992, 16 new series were "
11195 "produced independently of conglomerate control, last year there was "
11196 "one.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> In 2002, 75 percent of "
11197 "prime time television was owned by the networks that ran it. <quote>In the "
11198 "ten-year period between 1992 and 2002, the number of prime time television "
11199 "hours per week produced by network studios increased over 200%, whereas the "
11200 "number of prime time television hours per week produced by independent "
11201 "studios decreased 63%.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
11204 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11205 #: freeculture.xml:8268
11207 "Today, another Norman Lear with another <citetitle>All in the "
11208 "Family</citetitle> would find that he had the choice either to make the show "
11209 "less edgy or to be fired: The content of any show developed for a network is "
11210 "increasingly owned by the network."
11213 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
11214 #: freeculture.xml:8277
11215 msgid "Diller, Barry"
11218 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
11219 #: freeculture.xml:8278
11220 msgid "Moyers, Bill"
11223 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11224 #: freeculture.xml:8274
11226 "While the number of channels has increased dramatically, the ownership of "
11227 "those channels has narrowed to an ever smaller and smaller few. As Barry "
11228 "Diller said to Bill Moyers, <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> "
11229 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
11233 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
11234 #: freeculture.xml:8291
11236 "<quote>Barry Diller Takes on Media Deregulation,</quote> <citetitle>Now with "
11237 "Bill Moyers</citetitle>, Bill Moyers, 25 April 2003, edited transcript "
11238 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #31</ulink>."
11241 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
11242 #: freeculture.xml:8282
11244 "Well, if you have companies that produce, that finance, that air on their "
11245 "channel and then distribute worldwide everything that goes through their "
11246 "controlled distribution system, then what you get is fewer and fewer actual "
11247 "voices participating in the process. [We u]sed to have dozens and dozens of "
11248 "thriving independent production companies producing television programs. Now "
11249 "you have less than a handful.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
11252 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11253 #: freeculture.xml:8298
11255 "This narrowing has an effect on what is produced. The product of such large "
11256 "and concentrated networks is increasingly homogenous. Increasingly "
11257 "safe. Increasingly sterile. The product of news shows from networks like "
11258 "this is increasingly tailored to the message the network wants to "
11259 "convey. This is not the communist party, though from the inside, it must "
11260 "feel a bit like the communist party. No one can question without risk of "
11261 "consequence—not necessarily banishment to Siberia, but punishment "
11262 "nonetheless. Independent, critical, different views are quashed. This is not "
11263 "the environment for a democracy."
11266 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11267 #: freeculture.xml:8309
11268 msgid "Clark, Kim B."
11272 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11273 #: freeculture.xml:8318
11275 "Clayton M. Christensen, <citetitle>The Innovator's Dilemma: The "
11276 "Revolutionary National Bestseller that Changed the Way We Do "
11277 "Business</citetitle> (Cambridge: Harvard Business School Press, "
11278 "1997). Christensen acknowledges that the idea was first suggested by Dean "
11279 "Kim Clark. See Kim B. Clark, <quote>The Interaction of Design Hierarchies "
11280 "and Market Concepts in Technological Evolution,</quote> <citetitle>Research "
11281 "Policy</citetitle> 14 (1985): 235–51. For a more recent study, see "
11282 "Richard Foster and Sarah Kaplan, <citetitle>Creative Destruction: Why "
11283 "Companies That Are Built to Last Underperform the Market—and How to "
11284 "Successfully Transform Them</citetitle> (New York: Currency/Doubleday, "
11288 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11289 #: freeculture.xml:8311
11291 "Economics itself offers a parallel that explains why this integration "
11292 "affects creativity. Clay Christensen has written about the "
11293 "<quote>Innovator's Dilemma</quote>: the fact that large traditional firms "
11294 "find it rational to ignore new, breakthrough technologies that compete with "
11295 "their core business. The same analysis could help explain why large, "
11296 "traditional media companies would find it rational to ignore new cultural "
11297 "trends.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Lumbering giants not only "
11298 "don't, but should not, sprint. Yet if the field is only open to the giants, "
11299 "there will be far too little sprinting. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
11303 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11304 #: freeculture.xml:8335
11306 "I don't think we know enough about the economics of the media market to say "
11307 "with certainty what concentration and integration will do. The efficiencies "
11308 "are important, and the effect on culture is hard to measure."
11311 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11312 #: freeculture.xml:8341
11314 "But there is a quintessentially obvious example that does strongly suggest "
11318 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11319 #: freeculture.xml:8345
11321 "In addition to the copyright wars, we're in the middle of the drug "
11322 "wars. Government policy is strongly directed against the drug cartels; "
11323 "criminal and civil courts are filled with the consequences of this battle."
11327 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11328 #: freeculture.xml:8350
11330 "Let me hereby disqualify myself from any possible appointment to any "
11331 "position in government by saying I believe this war is a profound mistake. I "
11332 "am not pro drugs. Indeed, I come from a family once wrecked by "
11333 "drugs—though the drugs that wrecked my family were all quite legal. I "
11334 "believe this war is a profound mistake because the collateral damage from it "
11335 "is so great as to make waging the war insane. When you add together the "
11336 "burdens on the criminal justice system, the desperation of generations of "
11337 "kids whose only real economic opportunities are as drug warriors, the "
11338 "queering of constitutional protections because of the constant surveillance "
11339 "this war requires, and, most profoundly, the total destruction of the legal "
11340 "systems of many South American nations because of the power of the local "
11341 "drug cartels, I find it impossible to believe that the marginal benefit in "
11342 "reduced drug consumption by Americans could possibly outweigh these costs."
11345 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11346 #: freeculture.xml:8369
11348 "You may not be convinced. That's fine. We live in a democracy, and it is "
11349 "through votes that we are to choose policy. But to do that, we depend "
11350 "fundamentally upon the press to help inform Americans about these issues."
11353 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11354 #: freeculture.xml:8378
11356 "Beginning in 1998, the Office of National Drug Control Policy launched a "
11357 "media campaign as part of the <quote>war on drugs.</quote> The campaign "
11358 "produced scores of short film clips about issues related to illegal "
11359 "drugs. In one series (the Nick and Norm series) two men are in a bar, "
11360 "discussing the idea of legalizing drugs as a way to avoid some of the "
11361 "collateral damage from the war. One advances an argument in favor of drug "
11362 "legalization. The other responds in a powerful and effective way against the "
11363 "argument of the first. In the end, the first guy changes his mind (hey, it's "
11364 "television). The plug at the end is a damning attack on the pro-legalization "
11368 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11369 #: freeculture.xml:8390
11371 "Fair enough. It's a good ad. Not terribly misleading. It delivers its "
11372 "message well. It's a fair and reasonable message."
11375 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11376 #: freeculture.xml:8394
11378 "But let's say you think it is a wrong message, and you'd like to run a "
11379 "countercommercial. Say you want to run a series of ads that try to "
11380 "demonstrate the extraordinary collateral harm that comes from the drug "
11381 "war. Can you do it?"
11385 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11386 #: freeculture.xml:8400
11388 "Well, obviously, these ads cost lots of money. Assume you raise the "
11389 "money. Assume a group of concerned citizens donates all the money in the "
11390 "world to help you get your message out. Can you be sure your message will be "
11394 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
11395 #: freeculture.xml:8442
11399 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
11400 #: freeculture.xml:8443
11401 msgid "Marijuana Policy Project"
11404 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
11405 #: freeculture.xml:8444
11409 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
11410 #: freeculture.xml:8445
11414 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
11415 #: freeculture.xml:8446
11419 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11420 #: freeculture.xml:8417
11422 "The Marijuana Policy Project, in February 2003, sought to place ads that "
11423 "directly responded to the Nick and Norm series on stations within the "
11424 "Washington, D.C., area. Comcast rejected the ads as <quote>against [their] "
11425 "policy.</quote> The local NBC affiliate, WRC, rejected the ads without "
11426 "reviewing them. The local ABC affiliate, WJOA, originally agreed to run the "
11427 "ads and accepted payment to do so, but later decided not to run the ads and "
11428 "returned the collected fees. Interview with Neal Levine, 15 October 2003. "
11429 "These restrictions are, of course, not limited to drug policy. See, for "
11430 "example, Nat Ives, <quote>On the Issue of an Iraq War, Advocacy Ads Meet "
11431 "with Rejection from TV Networks,</quote> <citetitle>New York "
11432 "Times</citetitle>, 13 March 2003, C4. Outside of election-related air time "
11433 "there is very little that the FCC or the courts are willing to do to even "
11434 "the playing field. For a general overview, see Rhonda Brown, <quote>Ad Hoc "
11435 "Access: The Regulation of Editorial Advertising on Television and "
11436 "Radio,</quote> <citetitle>Yale Law and Policy Review</citetitle> 6 (1988): "
11437 "449–79, and for a more recent summary of the stance of the FCC and the "
11438 "courts, see <citetitle>Radio-Television News Directors "
11439 "Association</citetitle> v. <citetitle>FCC</citetitle>, 184 F. 3d 872 "
11440 "(D.C. Cir. 1999). Municipal authorities exercise the same authority as the "
11441 "networks. In a recent example from San Francisco, the San Francisco transit "
11442 "authority rejected an ad that criticized its Muni diesel buses. Phillip "
11443 "Matier and Andrew Ross, <quote>Antidiesel Group Fuming After Muni Rejects "
11444 "Ad,</quote> SFGate.com, 16 June 2003, available at <ulink "
11445 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #32</ulink>. The ground was that "
11446 "the criticism was <quote>too controversial.</quote> <placeholder "
11447 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> "
11448 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
11449 "id=\"3\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"4\"/> <placeholder "
11450 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"5\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"6\"/>"
11453 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11454 #: freeculture.xml:8407
11456 "No. You cannot. Television stations have a general policy of avoiding "
11457 "<quote>controversial</quote> ads. Ads sponsored by the government are deemed "
11458 "uncontroversial; ads disagreeing with the government are controversial. "
11459 "This selectivity might be thought inconsistent with the First Amendment, but "
11460 "the Supreme Court has held that stations have the right to choose what they "
11461 "run. Thus, the major channels of commercial media will refuse one side of a "
11462 "crucial debate the opportunity to present its case. And the courts will "
11463 "defend the rights of the stations to be this biased.<placeholder "
11464 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
11467 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11468 #: freeculture.xml:8451
11470 "I'd be happy to defend the networks' rights, as well—if we lived in a "
11471 "media market that was truly diverse. But concentration in the media throws "
11472 "that condition into doubt. If a handful of companies control access to the "
11473 "media, and that handful of companies gets to decide which political "
11474 "positions it will allow to be promoted on its channels, then in an obvious "
11475 "and important way, concentration matters. You might like the positions the "
11476 "handful of companies selects. But you should not like a world in which a "
11477 "mere few get to decide which issues the rest of us get to know about."
11480 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
11481 #: freeculture.xml:8464
11485 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11486 #: freeculture.xml:8466
11488 "There is something innocent and obvious about the claim of the copyright "
11489 "warriors that the government should <quote>protect my property.</quote> In "
11490 "the abstract, it is obviously true and, ordinarily, totally harmless. No "
11491 "sane sort who is not an anarchist could disagree."
11495 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11496 #: freeculture.xml:8472
11498 "But when we see how dramatically this <quote>property</quote> has "
11499 "changed— when we recognize how it might now interact with both "
11500 "technology and markets to mean that the effective constraint on the liberty "
11501 "to cultivate our culture is dramatically different—the claim begins to "
11502 "seem less innocent and obvious. Given (1) the power of technology to "
11503 "supplement the law's control, and (2) the power of concentrated markets to "
11504 "weaken the opportunity for dissent, if strictly enforcing the massively "
11505 "expanded <quote>property</quote> rights granted by copyright fundamentally "
11506 "changes the freedom within this culture to cultivate and build upon our "
11507 "past, then we have to ask whether this property should be redefined."
11510 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11511 #: freeculture.xml:8488
11513 "Not starkly. Or absolutely. My point is not that we should abolish copyright "
11514 "or go back to the eighteenth century. That would be a total mistake, "
11515 "disastrous for the most important creative enterprises within our culture "
11519 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11520 #: freeculture.xml:8494
11522 "But there is a space between zero and one, Internet culture "
11523 "notwithstanding. And these massive shifts in the effective power of "
11524 "copyright regulation, tied to increased concentration of the content "
11525 "industry and resting in the hands of technology that will increasingly "
11526 "enable control over the use of culture, should drive us to consider whether "
11527 "another adjustment is called for. Not an adjustment that increases "
11528 "copyright's power. Not an adjustment that increases its term. Rather, an "
11529 "adjustment to restore the balance that has traditionally defined copyright's "
11530 "regulation—a weakening of that regulation, to strengthen creativity."
11533 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11534 #: freeculture.xml:8506
11536 "Copyright law has not been a rock of Gibraltar. It's not a set of constant "
11537 "commitments that, for some mysterious reason, teenagers and geeks now "
11538 "flout. Instead, copyright power has grown dramatically in a short period of "
11539 "time, as the technologies of distribution and creation have changed and as "
11540 "lobbyists have pushed for more control by copyright holders. Changes in the "
11541 "past in response to changes in technology suggest that we may well need "
11542 "similar changes in the future. And these changes have to be "
11543 "<emphasis>reductions</emphasis> in the scope of copyright, in response to "
11544 "the extraordinary increase in control that technology and the market enable."
11548 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11549 #: freeculture.xml:8518
11551 "For the single point that is lost in this war on pirates is a point that we "
11552 "see only after surveying the range of these changes. When you add together "
11553 "the effect of changing law, concentrated markets, and changing technology, "
11554 "together they produce an astonishing conclusion: <emphasis>Never in our "
11555 "history have fewer had a legal right to control more of the development of "
11556 "our culture than now</emphasis>."
11559 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11560 #: freeculture.xml:8542
11562 "Siva Vaidhyanathan captures a similar point in his <quote>four "
11563 "surrenders</quote> of copyright law in the digital age. See Vaidhyanathan, "
11564 "159–60. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
11567 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11568 #: freeculture.xml:8527
11570 "Not when copyrights were perpetual, for when copyrights were perpetual, they "
11571 "affected only that precise creative work. Not when only publishers had the "
11572 "tools to publish, for the market then was much more diverse. Not when there "
11573 "were only three television networks, for even then, newspapers, film "
11574 "studios, radio stations, and publishers were independent of the "
11575 "networks. <emphasis>Never</emphasis> has copyright protected such a wide "
11576 "range of rights, against as broad a range of actors, for a term that was "
11577 "remotely as long. This form of regulation—a tiny regulation of a tiny "
11578 "part of the creative energy of a nation at the founding—is now a "
11579 "massive regulation of the overall creative process. Law plus technology plus "
11580 "the market now interact to turn this historically benign regulation into the "
11581 "most significant regulation of culture that our free society has "
11582 "known.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
11585 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11586 #: freeculture.xml:8548
11588 "<emphasis role='strong'>This has been</emphasis> a long chapter. Its point "
11589 "can now be briefly stated."
11592 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11593 #: freeculture.xml:8552
11595 "At the start of this book, I distinguished between commercial and "
11596 "noncommercial culture. In the course of this chapter, I have distinguished "
11597 "between copying a work and transforming it. We can now combine these two "
11598 "distinctions and draw a clear map of the changes that copyright law has "
11599 "undergone. In 1790, the law looked like this:"
11602 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
11603 #: freeculture.xml:8564 freeculture.xml:8601
11607 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
11608 #: freeculture.xml:8565 freeculture.xml:8602 freeculture.xml:8640 freeculture.xml:8672
11612 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
11613 #: freeculture.xml:8570 freeculture.xml:8607 freeculture.xml:8645 freeculture.xml:8677
11617 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
11618 #: freeculture.xml:8571 freeculture.xml:8608 freeculture.xml:8609 freeculture.xml:8646 freeculture.xml:8647 freeculture.xml:8678 freeculture.xml:8679 freeculture.xml:8683 freeculture.xml:8684
11622 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
11623 #: freeculture.xml:8572 freeculture.xml:8576 freeculture.xml:8577 freeculture.xml:8613 freeculture.xml:8614 freeculture.xml:8652
11627 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
11628 #: freeculture.xml:8575 freeculture.xml:8612 freeculture.xml:8650 freeculture.xml:8682
11629 msgid "Noncommercial"
11633 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11634 #: freeculture.xml:8584
11636 "The act of publishing a map, chart, and book was regulated by copyright "
11637 "law. Nothing else was. Transformations were free. And as copyright attached "
11638 "only with registration, and only those who intended to benefit commercially "
11639 "would register, copying through publishing of noncommercial work was also "
11643 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11644 #: freeculture.xml:8593
11645 msgid "By the end of the nineteenth century, the law had changed to this:"
11648 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11649 #: freeculture.xml:8621
11651 "Derivative works were now regulated by copyright law—if published, "
11652 "which again, given the economics of publishing at the time, means if offered "
11653 "commercially. But noncommercial publishing and transformation were still "
11654 "essentially free."
11657 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11658 #: freeculture.xml:8627
11660 "In 1909 the law changed to regulate copies, not publishing, and after this "
11661 "change, the scope of the law was tied to technology. As the technology of "
11662 "copying became more prevalent, the reach of the law expanded. Thus by 1975, "
11663 "as photocopying machines became more common, we could say the law began to "
11667 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
11668 #: freeculture.xml:8639 freeculture.xml:8671
11672 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
11673 #: freeculture.xml:8651
11674 msgid "©/Free"
11677 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11678 #: freeculture.xml:8659
11680 "The law was interpreted to reach noncommercial copying through, say, copy "
11681 "machines, but still much of copying outside of the commercial market "
11682 "remained free. But the consequence of the emergence of digital technologies, "
11683 "especially in the context of a digital network, means that the law now looks "
11688 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11689 #: freeculture.xml:8691
11691 "Every realm is governed by copyright law, whereas before most creativity was "
11692 "not. The law now regulates the full range of creativity— commercial or "
11693 "not, transformative or not—with the same rules designed to regulate "
11694 "commercial publishers."
11697 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11698 #: freeculture.xml:8699
11700 "Obviously, copyright law is not the enemy. The enemy is regulation that does "
11701 "no good. So the question that we should be asking just now is whether "
11702 "extending the regulations of copyright law into each of these domains "
11703 "actually does any good."
11706 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11707 #: freeculture.xml:8705
11709 "I have no doubt that it does good in regulating commercial copying. But I "
11710 "also have no doubt that it does more harm than good when regulating (as it "
11711 "regulates just now) noncommercial copying and, especially, noncommercial "
11712 "transformation. And increasingly, for the reasons sketched especially in "
11713 "chapters <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"recorders\"/> and "
11714 "<xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"transformers\"/>, one "
11715 "might well wonder whether it does more harm than good for commercial "
11716 "transformation. More commercial transformative work would be created if "
11717 "derivative rights were more sharply restricted."
11720 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
11721 #: freeculture.xml:8729
11722 msgid "legal realist movement"
11725 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11726 #: freeculture.xml:8723
11728 "It was the single most important contribution of the legal realist movement "
11729 "to demonstrate that all property rights are always crafted to balance public "
11730 "and private interests. See Thomas C. Grey, <quote>The Disintegration of "
11731 "Property,</quote> in <citetitle>Nomos XXII: Property</citetitle>, J. Roland "
11732 "Pennock and John W. Chapman, eds. (New York: New York University Press, "
11733 "1980). <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
11736 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11737 #: freeculture.xml:8717
11739 "The issue is therefore not simply whether copyright is property. Of course "
11740 "copyright is a kind of <quote>property,</quote> and of course, as with any "
11741 "property, the state ought to protect it. But first impressions "
11742 "notwithstanding, historically, this property right (as with all property "
11743 "rights<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>) has been crafted to "
11744 "balance the important need to give authors and artists incentives with the "
11745 "equally important need to assure access to creative work. This balance has "
11746 "always been struck in light of new technologies. And for almost half of our "
11747 "tradition, the <quote>copyright</quote> did not control <emphasis>at "
11748 "all</emphasis> the freedom of others to build upon or transform a creative "
11749 "work. American culture was born free, and for almost 180 years our country "
11750 "consistently protected a vibrant and rich free culture."
11754 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11755 #: freeculture.xml:8742
11757 "We achieved that free culture because our law respected important limits on "
11758 "the scope of the interests protected by <quote>property.</quote> The very "
11759 "birth of <quote>copyright</quote> as a statutory right recognized those "
11760 "limits, by granting copyright owners protection for a limited time only (the "
11761 "story of chapter 6). The tradition of <quote>fair use</quote> is animated by "
11762 "a similar concern that is increasingly under strain as the costs of "
11763 "exercising any fair use right become unavoidably high (the story of chapter "
11764 "7). Adding statutory rights where markets might stifle innovation is another "
11765 "familiar limit on the property right that copyright is (chapter 8). And "
11766 "granting archives and libraries a broad freedom to collect, claims of "
11767 "property notwithstanding, is a crucial part of guaranteeing the soul of a "
11768 "culture (chapter 9). Free cultures, like free markets, are built with "
11769 "property. But the nature of the property that builds a free culture is very "
11770 "different from the extremist vision that dominates the debate today."
11773 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11774 #: freeculture.xml:8761
11776 "Free culture is increasingly the casualty in this war on piracy. In response "
11777 "to a real, if not yet quantified, threat that the technologies of the "
11778 "Internet present to twentieth-century business models for producing and "
11779 "distributing culture, the law and technology are being transformed in a way "
11780 "that will undermine our tradition of free culture. The property right that "
11781 "is copyright is no longer the balanced right that it was, or was intended to "
11782 "be. The property right that is copyright has become unbalanced, tilted "
11783 "toward an extreme. The opportunity to create and transform becomes weakened "
11784 "in a world in which creation requires permission and creativity must check "
11788 #. type: Content of: <book><part><title>
11789 #: freeculture.xml:8778
11793 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
11794 #: freeculture.xml:8782
11795 msgid "CHAPTER ELEVEN: Chimera"
11798 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
11799 #: freeculture.xml:8784
11803 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
11804 #: freeculture.xml:8787
11805 msgid "Wells, H. G."
11808 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
11809 #: freeculture.xml:8790
11810 msgid "<quote>Country of the Blind, The</quote> (Wells)"
11814 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
11815 #: freeculture.xml:8799
11817 "H. G. Wells, <quote>The Country of the Blind</quote> (1904, 1911). See "
11818 "H. G. Wells, <citetitle>The Country of the Blind and Other "
11819 "Stories</citetitle>, Michael Sherborne, ed. (New York: Oxford University "
11823 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11824 #: freeculture.xml:8794
11826 "<emphasis role='strong'>In a well-known</emphasis> short story by "
11827 "H. G. Wells, a mountain climber named Nunez trips (literally, down an ice "
11828 "slope) into an unknown and isolated valley in the Peruvian "
11829 "Andes.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The valley is "
11830 "extraordinarily beautiful, with <quote>sweet water, pasture, an even "
11831 "climate, slopes of rich brown soil with tangles of a shrub that bore an "
11832 "excellent fruit.</quote> But the villagers are all blind. Nunez takes this "
11833 "as an opportunity. <quote>In the Country of the Blind,</quote> he tells "
11834 "himself, <quote>the One-Eyed Man is King.</quote> So he resolves to live "
11835 "with the villagers to explore life as a king."
11838 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11839 #: freeculture.xml:8811
11841 "Things don't go quite as he planned. He tries to explain the idea of sight "
11842 "to the villagers. They don't understand. He tells them they are "
11843 "<quote>blind.</quote> They don't have the word "
11844 "<citetitle>blind</citetitle>. They think he's just thick. Indeed, as they "
11845 "increasingly notice the things he can't do (hear the sound of grass being "
11846 "stepped on, for example), they increasingly try to control him. He, in turn, "
11847 "becomes increasingly frustrated. <quote>`You don't understand,' he cried, in "
11848 "a voice that was meant to be great and resolute, and which broke. `You are "
11849 "blind and I can see. Leave me alone!'</quote>"
11853 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11854 #: freeculture.xml:8823
11856 "The villagers don't leave him alone. Nor do they see (so to speak) the "
11857 "virtue of his special power. Not even the ultimate target of his affection, "
11858 "a young woman who to him seems <quote>the most beautiful thing in the whole "
11859 "of creation,</quote> understands the beauty of sight. Nunez's description of "
11860 "what he sees <quote>seemed to her the most poetical of fancies, and she "
11861 "listened to his description of the stars and the mountains and her own sweet "
11862 "white-lit beauty as though it was a guilty indulgence.</quote> <quote>She "
11863 "did not believe,</quote> Wells tells us, and <quote>she could only half "
11864 "understand, but she was mysteriously delighted.</quote>"
11867 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11868 #: freeculture.xml:8834
11870 "When Nunez announces his desire to marry his <quote>mysteriously "
11871 "delighted</quote> love, the father and the village object. <quote>You see, "
11872 "my dear,</quote> her father instructs, <quote>he's an idiot. He has "
11873 "delusions. He can't do anything right.</quote> They take Nunez to the "
11877 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11878 #: freeculture.xml:8840
11880 "After a careful examination, the doctor gives his opinion. <quote>His brain "
11881 "is affected,</quote> he reports."
11884 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11885 #: freeculture.xml:8844
11887 "<quote>What affects it?</quote> the father asks. <quote>Those queer things "
11888 "that are called the eyes … are diseased … in such a way as to "
11889 "affect his brain.</quote>"
11892 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11893 #: freeculture.xml:8849
11895 "The doctor continues: <quote>I think I may say with reasonable certainty "
11896 "that in order to cure him completely, all that we need to do is a simple and "
11897 "easy surgical operation—namely, to remove these irritant bodies [the "
11901 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11902 #: freeculture.xml:8855
11904 "<quote>Thank Heaven for science!</quote> says the father to the doctor. They "
11905 "inform Nunez of this condition necessary for him to be allowed his bride. "
11906 "(You'll have to read the original to learn what happens in the end. I "
11907 "believe in free culture, but never in giving away the end of a story.)"
11911 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11912 #: freeculture.xml:8861
11914 "<emphasis role='strong'>It sometimes</emphasis> happens that the eggs of "
11915 "twins fuse in the mother's womb. That fusion produces a "
11916 "<quote>chimera.</quote> A chimera is a single creature with two sets of "
11917 "DNA. The DNA in the blood, for example, might be different from the DNA of "
11918 "the skin. This possibility is an underused plot for murder "
11919 "mysteries. <quote>But the DNA shows with 100 percent certainty that she was "
11920 "not the person whose blood was at the scene. …</quote>"
11923 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11924 #: freeculture.xml:8875
11926 "Before I had read about chimeras, I would have said they were impossible. A "
11927 "single person can't have two sets of DNA. The very idea of DNA is that it is "
11928 "the code of an individual. Yet in fact, not only can two individuals have "
11929 "the same set of DNA (identical twins), but one person can have two different "
11930 "sets of DNA (a chimera). Our understanding of a <quote>person</quote> should "
11931 "reflect this reality."
11934 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11935 #: freeculture.xml:8883
11937 "The more I work to understand the current struggle over copyright and "
11938 "culture, which I've sometimes called unfairly, and sometimes not unfairly "
11939 "enough, <quote>the copyright wars,</quote> the more I think we're dealing "
11940 "with a chimera. For example, in the battle over the question <quote>What is "
11941 "p2p file sharing?</quote> both sides have it right, and both sides have it "
11942 "wrong. One side says, <quote>File sharing is just like two kids taping each "
11943 "others' records—the sort of thing we've been doing for the last thirty "
11944 "years without any question at all.</quote> That's true, at least in "
11945 "part. When I tell my best friend to try out a new CD that I've bought, but "
11946 "rather than just send the CD, I point him to my p2p server, that is, in all "
11947 "relevant respects, just like what every executive in every recording company "
11948 "no doubt did as a kid: sharing music."
11951 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11952 #: freeculture.xml:8897
11954 "But the description is also false in part. For when my p2p server is on a "
11955 "p2p network through which anyone can get access to my music, then sure, my "
11956 "friends can get access, but it stretches the meaning of "
11957 "<quote>friends</quote> beyond recognition to say <quote>my ten thousand best "
11958 "friends</quote> can get access. Whether or not sharing my music with my best "
11959 "friend is what <quote>we have always been allowed to do,</quote> we have not "
11960 "always been allowed to share music with <quote>our ten thousand best "
11964 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11965 #: freeculture.xml:8906
11967 "Likewise, when the other side says, <quote>File sharing is just like walking "
11968 "into a Tower Records and taking a CD off the shelf and walking out with "
11969 "it,</quote> that's true, at least in part. If, after Lyle Lovett (finally) "
11970 "releases a new album, rather than buying it, I go to Kazaa and find a free "
11971 "copy to take, that is very much like stealing a copy from Tower. "
11972 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
11976 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11977 #: freeculture.xml:8917
11979 "But it is not quite stealing from Tower. After all, when I take a CD from "
11980 "Tower Records, Tower has one less CD to sell. And when I take a CD from "
11981 "Tower Records, I get a bit of plastic and a cover, and something to show on "
11982 "my shelves. (And, while we're at it, we could also note that when I take a "
11983 "CD from Tower Records, the maximum fine that might be imposed on me, under "
11984 "California law, at least, is $1,000. According to the RIAA, by contrast, if "
11985 "I download a ten-song CD, I'm liable for $1,500,000 in damages.)"
11988 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11989 #: freeculture.xml:8927
11991 "The point is not that it is as neither side describes. The point is that it "
11992 "is both—both as the RIAA describes it and as Kazaa describes it. It is "
11993 "a chimera. And rather than simply denying what the other side asserts, we "
11994 "need to begin to think about how we should respond to this chimera. What "
11995 "rules should govern it?"
11998 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11999 #: freeculture.xml:8943 freeculture.xml:9225 freeculture.xml:10268
12000 msgid "ISPs (Internet service providers), user identities revealed by"
12003 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
12004 #: freeculture.xml:8974
12005 msgid "Conyers, John, Jr."
12008 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
12009 #: freeculture.xml:8975 freeculture.xml:9693
12010 msgid "Berman, Howard L."
12013 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
12014 #: freeculture.xml:8943
12016 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> For an excellent summary, see the "
12017 "report prepared by GartnerG2 and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society "
12018 "at Harvard Law School, <quote>Copyright and Digital Media in a Post-Napster "
12019 "World,</quote> 27 June 2003, available at <ulink "
12020 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #33</ulink>. Reps. John Conyers "
12021 "Jr. (D-Mich.) and Howard L. Berman (D-Calif.) have introduced a bill that "
12022 "would treat unauthorized on-line copying as a felony offense with "
12023 "punishments ranging as high as five years imprisonment; see Jon Healey, "
12024 "<quote>House Bill Aims to Up Stakes on Piracy,</quote> <citetitle>Los "
12025 "Angeles Times</citetitle>, 17 July 2003, available at <ulink "
12026 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #34</ulink>. Civil penalties are "
12027 "currently set at $150,000 per copied song. For a recent (and unsuccessful) "
12028 "legal challenge to the RIAA's demand that an ISP reveal the identity of a "
12029 "user accused of sharing more than 600 songs through a family computer, see "
12030 "<citetitle>RIAA</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Verizon Internet Services (In "
12031 "re. Verizon Internet Services)</citetitle>, 240 F. Supp. 2d 24 "
12032 "(D.D.C. 2003). Such a user could face liability ranging as high as $90 "
12033 "million. Such astronomical figures furnish the RIAA with a powerful arsenal "
12034 "in its prosecution of file sharers. Settlements ranging from $12,000 to "
12035 "$17,500 for four students accused of heavy file sharing on university "
12036 "networks must have seemed a mere pittance next to the $98 billion the RIAA "
12037 "could seek should the matter proceed to court. See Elizabeth Young, "
12038 "<quote>Downloading Could Lead to Fines,</quote> redandblack.com, August "
12039 "2003, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
12040 "#35</ulink>. For an example of the RIAA's targeting of student file sharing, "
12041 "and of the subpoenas issued to universities to reveal student file-sharer "
12042 "identities, see James Collins, <quote>RIAA Steps Up Bid to Force BC, MIT to "
12043 "Name Students,</quote> <citetitle>Boston Globe</citetitle>, 8 August 2003, "
12044 "D3, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
12045 "#36</ulink>. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> <placeholder "
12046 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/>"
12049 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12050 #: freeculture.xml:8934
12052 "We could respond by simply pretending that it is not a chimera. We could, "
12053 "with the RIAA, decide that every act of file sharing should be a felony. We "
12054 "could prosecute families for millions of dollars in damages just because "
12055 "file sharing occurred on a family computer. And we can get universities to "
12056 "monitor all computer traffic to make sure that no computer is used to commit "
12057 "this crime. These responses might be extreme, but each of them has either "
12058 "been proposed or actually implemented.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
12062 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12063 #: freeculture.xml:8981
12065 "Alternatively, we could respond to file sharing the way many kids act as "
12066 "though we've responded. We could totally legalize it. Let there be no "
12067 "copyright liability, either civil or criminal, for making copyrighted "
12068 "content available on the Net. Make file sharing like gossip: regulated, if "
12069 "at all, by social norms but not by law."
12072 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12073 #: freeculture.xml:8988
12075 "Either response is possible. I think either would be a mistake. Rather than "
12076 "embrace one of these two extremes, we should embrace something that "
12077 "recognizes the truth in both. And while I end this book with a sketch of a "
12078 "system that does just that, my aim in the next chapter is to show just how "
12079 "awful it would be for us to adopt the zero-tolerance extreme. I believe "
12080 "<emphasis>either</emphasis> extreme would be worse than a reasonable "
12081 "alternative. But I believe the zero-tolerance solution would be the worse "
12082 "of the two extremes."
12086 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12087 #: freeculture.xml:9000
12089 "Yet zero tolerance is increasingly our government's policy. In the middle of "
12090 "the chaos that the Internet has created, an extraordinary land grab is "
12091 "occurring. The law and technology are being shifted to give content holders "
12092 "a kind of control over our culture that they have never had before. And in "
12093 "this extremism, many an opportunity for new innovation and new creativity "
12097 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12098 #: freeculture.xml:9008
12100 "I'm not talking about the opportunities for kids to <quote>steal</quote> "
12101 "music. My focus instead is the commercial and cultural innovation that this "
12102 "war will also kill. We have never seen the power to innovate spread so "
12103 "broadly among our citizens, and we have just begun to see the innovation "
12104 "that this power will unleash. Yet the Internet has already seen the passing "
12105 "of one cycle of innovation around technologies to distribute content. The "
12106 "law is responsible for this passing. As the vice president for global public "
12107 "policy at one of these new innovators, eMusic.com, put it when criticizing "
12108 "the DMCA's added protection for copyrighted material,"
12111 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
12112 #: freeculture.xml:9021
12114 "eMusic opposes music piracy. We are a distributor of copyrighted material, "
12115 "and we want to protect those rights."
12118 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
12119 #: freeculture.xml:9025
12121 "But building a technology fortress that locks in the clout of the major "
12122 "labels is by no means the only way to protect copyright interests, nor is it "
12123 "necessarily the best. It is simply too early to answer that question. Market "
12124 "forces operating naturally may very well produce a totally different "
12129 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
12130 #: freeculture.xml:9042
12132 "WIPO and the DMCA One Year Later: Assessing Consumer Access to Digital "
12133 "Entertainment on the Internet and Other Media: Hearing Before the "
12134 "Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade, and Consumer Protection, House "
12135 "Committee on Commerce, 106th Cong. 29 (1999) (statement of Peter Harter, "
12136 "vice president, Global Public Policy and Standards, EMusic.com), available "
12137 "in LEXIS, Federal Document Clearing House Congressional Testimony File."
12140 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
12141 #: freeculture.xml:9032
12143 "This is a critical point. The choices that industry sectors make with "
12144 "respect to these systems will in many ways directly shape the market for "
12145 "digital media and the manner in which digital media are distributed. This in "
12146 "turn will directly influence the options that are available to consumers, "
12147 "both in terms of the ease with which they will be able to access digital "
12148 "media and the equipment that they will require to do so. Poor choices made "
12149 "this early in the game will retard the growth of this market, hurting "
12150 "everyone's interests.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
12153 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
12154 #: freeculture.xml:9056 freeculture.xml:9413
12155 msgid "Vivendi Universal"
12158 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12159 #: freeculture.xml:9053
12161 "In April 2001, eMusic.com was purchased by Vivendi Universal, one of "
12162 "<quote>the major labels.</quote> Its position on these matters has now "
12163 "changed. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
12166 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12167 #: freeculture.xml:9059
12169 "Reversing our tradition of tolerance now will not merely quash piracy. It "
12170 "will sacrifice values that are important to this culture, and will kill "
12171 "opportunities that could be extraordinarily valuable."
12174 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
12175 #: freeculture.xml:9067
12176 msgid "CHAPTER TWELVE: Harms"
12179 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12180 #: freeculture.xml:9069
12182 "<emphasis role='strong'>To fight</emphasis> <quote>piracy,</quote> to "
12183 "protect <quote>property,</quote> the content industry has launched a "
12184 "war. Lobbying and lots of campaign contributions have now brought the "
12185 "government into this war. As with any war, this one will have both direct "
12186 "and collateral damage. As with any war of prohibition, these damages will be "
12187 "suffered most by our own people."
12190 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12191 #: freeculture.xml:9077
12193 "My aim so far has been to describe the consequences of this war, in "
12194 "particular, the consequences for <quote>free culture.</quote> But my aim now "
12195 "is to extend this description of consequences into an argument. Is this war "
12199 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12200 #: freeculture.xml:9083
12202 "In my view, it is not. There is no good reason why this time, for the first "
12203 "time, the law should defend the old against the new, just when the power of "
12204 "the property called <quote>intellectual property</quote> is at its greatest "
12208 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12209 #: freeculture.xml:9091
12211 "Yet <quote>common sense</quote> does not see it this way. Common sense is "
12212 "still on the side of the Causbys and the content industry. The extreme "
12213 "claims of control in the name of property still resonate; the uncritical "
12214 "rejection of <quote>piracy</quote> still has play."
12218 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12219 #: freeculture.xml:9099
12221 "There will be many consequences of continuing this war. I want to describe "
12222 "just three. All three might be said to be unintended. I am quite confident "
12223 "the third is unintended. I'm less sure about the first two. The first two "
12224 "protect modern RCAs, but there is no Howard Armstrong in the wings to fight "
12225 "today's monopolists of culture."
12228 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
12229 #: freeculture.xml:9106
12230 msgid "Constraining Creators"
12233 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12234 #: freeculture.xml:9108
12236 "In the next ten years we will see an explosion of digital technologies. "
12237 "These technologies will enable almost anyone to capture and share "
12238 "content. Capturing and sharing content, of course, is what humans have done "
12239 "since the dawn of man. It is how we learn and communicate. But capturing and "
12240 "sharing through digital technology is different. The fidelity and power are "
12241 "different. You could send an e-mail telling someone about a joke you saw on "
12242 "Comedy Central, or you could send the clip. You could write an essay about "
12243 "the inconsistencies in the arguments of the politician you most love to "
12244 "hate, or you could make a short film that puts statement against "
12245 "statement. You could write a poem to express your love, or you could weave "
12246 "together a string—a mash-up— of songs from your favorite artists "
12247 "in a collage and make it available on the Net."
12250 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12251 #: freeculture.xml:9123
12253 "This digital <quote>capturing and sharing</quote> is in part an extension of "
12254 "the capturing and sharing that has always been integral to our culture, and "
12255 "in part it is something new. It is continuous with the Kodak, but it "
12256 "explodes the boundaries of Kodak-like technologies. The technology of "
12257 "digital <quote>capturing and sharing</quote> promises a world of "
12258 "extraordinarily diverse creativity that can be easily and broadly "
12259 "shared. And as that creativity is applied to democracy, it will enable a "
12260 "broad range of citizens to use technology to express and criticize and "
12261 "contribute to the culture all around."
12265 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12266 #: freeculture.xml:9134
12268 "Technology has thus given us an opportunity to do something with culture "
12269 "that has only ever been possible for individuals in small groups, isolated "
12270 "from others. Think about an old man telling a story to a collection of "
12271 "neighbors in a small town. Now imagine that same storytelling extended "
12272 "across the globe."
12275 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12276 #: freeculture.xml:9144
12278 "Yet all this is possible only if the activity is presumptively legal. In the "
12279 "current regime of legal regulation, it is not. Forget file sharing for a "
12280 "moment. Think about your favorite amazing sites on the Net. Web sites that "
12281 "offer plot summaries from forgotten television shows; sites that catalog "
12282 "cartoons from the 1960s; sites that mix images and sound to criticize "
12283 "politicians or businesses; sites that gather newspaper articles on remote "
12284 "topics of science or culture. There is a vast amount of creative work spread "
12285 "across the Internet. But as the law is currently crafted, this work is "
12286 "presumptively illegal."
12289 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
12290 #: freeculture.xml:9172 freeculture.xml:9193
12294 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12295 #: freeculture.xml:9167
12297 "See Lynne W. Jeter, <citetitle>Disconnected: Deceit and Betrayal at "
12298 "WorldCom</citetitle> (Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2003), 176, 204; "
12299 "for details of the settlement, see MCI press release, <quote>MCI Wins "
12300 "U.S. District Court Approval for SEC Settlement</quote> (7 July 2003), "
12301 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #37</ulink>. "
12302 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
12305 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
12306 #: freeculture.xml:9188
12307 msgid "Bush, George W."
12310 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12311 #: freeculture.xml:9179
12313 "The bill, modeled after California's tort reform model, was passed in the "
12314 "House of Representatives but defeated in a Senate vote in July 2003. For an "
12315 "overview, see Tanya Albert, <quote>Measure Stalls in Senate: `We'll Be "
12316 "Back,' Say Tort Reformers,</quote> amednews.com, 28 July 2003, available at "
12317 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #38</ulink>, and "
12318 "<quote>Senate Turns Back Malpractice Caps,</quote> CBSNews.com, 9 July 2003, "
12319 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
12320 "#39</ulink>. President Bush has continued to urge tort reform in recent "
12321 "months. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
12324 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12325 #: freeculture.xml:9155
12327 "That presumption will increasingly chill creativity, as the examples of "
12328 "extreme penalties for vague infringements continue to proliferate. It is "
12329 "impossible to get a clear sense of what's allowed and what's not, and at the "
12330 "same time, the penalties for crossing the line are astonishingly harsh. The "
12331 "four students who were threatened by the RIAA ( Jesse Jordan of chapter 3 "
12332 "was just one) were threatened with a $98 billion lawsuit for building search "
12333 "engines that permitted songs to be copied. Yet World-Com—which "
12334 "defrauded investors of $11 billion, resulting in a loss to investors in "
12335 "market capitalization of over $200 billion—received a fine of a mere "
12336 "$750 million.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> And under legislation "
12337 "being pushed in Congress right now, a doctor who negligently removes the "
12338 "wrong leg in an operation would be liable for no more than $250,000 in "
12339 "damages for pain and suffering.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> Can "
12340 "common sense recognize the absurdity in a world where the maximum fine for "
12341 "downloading two songs off the Internet is more than the fine for a doctor's "
12342 "negligently butchering a patient? <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/>"
12345 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
12346 #: freeculture.xml:9195
12347 msgid "art, underground"
12351 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12352 #: freeculture.xml:9216
12354 "See Danit Lidor, <quote>Artists Just Wanna Be Free,</quote> "
12355 "<citetitle>Wired</citetitle>, 7 July 2003, available at <ulink "
12356 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #40</ulink>. For an overview of "
12357 "the exhibition, see <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
12361 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12362 #: freeculture.xml:9197
12364 "The consequence of this legal uncertainty, tied to these extremely high "
12365 "penalties, is that an extraordinary amount of creativity will either never "
12366 "be exercised, or never be exercised in the open. We drive this creative "
12367 "process underground by branding the modern-day Walt Disneys "
12368 "<quote>pirates.</quote> We make it impossible for businesses to rely upon a "
12369 "public domain, because the boundaries of the public domain are designed to "
12370 "be unclear. It never pays to do anything except pay for the right to create, "
12371 "and hence only those who can pay are allowed to create. As was the case in "
12372 "the Soviet Union, though for very different reasons, we will begin to see a "
12373 "world of underground art—not because the message is necessarily "
12374 "political, or because the subject is controversial, but because the very act "
12375 "of creating the art is legally fraught. Already, exhibits of <quote>illegal "
12376 "art</quote> tour the United States.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
12377 "In what does their <quote>illegality</quote> consist? In the act of mixing "
12378 "the culture around us with an expression that is critical or reflective."
12381 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12382 #: freeculture.xml:9227
12384 "Part of the reason for this fear of illegality has to do with the changing "
12385 "law. I described that change in detail in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: "
12386 "labelnumber\" linkend=\"property-i\"/>. But an even bigger part has to do "
12387 "with the increasing ease with which infractions can be tracked. As users of "
12388 "file-sharing systems discovered in 2002, it is a trivial matter for "
12389 "copyright owners to get courts to order Internet service providers to reveal "
12390 "who has what content. It is as if your cassette tape player transmitted a "
12391 "list of the songs that you played in the privacy of your own home that "
12392 "anyone could tune into for whatever reason they chose."
12395 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12396 #: freeculture.xml:9240
12398 "Never in our history has a painter had to worry about whether his painting "
12399 "infringed on someone else's work; but the modern-day painter, using the "
12400 "tools of Photoshop, sharing content on the Web, must worry all the "
12401 "time. Images are all around, but the only safe images to use in the act of "
12402 "creation are those purchased from Corbis or another image farm. And in "
12403 "purchasing, censoring happens. There is a free market in pencils; we needn't "
12404 "worry about its effect on creativity. But there is a highly regulated, "
12405 "monopolized market in cultural icons; the right to cultivate and transform "
12406 "them is not similarly free."
12409 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12410 #: freeculture.xml:9251
12412 "Lawyers rarely see this because lawyers are rarely empirical. As I described "
12413 "in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"recorders\"/>, "
12414 "in response to the story about documentary filmmaker Jon Else, I have been "
12415 "lectured again and again by lawyers who insist Else's use was fair use, and "
12416 "hence I am wrong to say that the law regulates such a use."
12420 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12421 #: freeculture.xml:9262
12423 "But fair use in America simply means the right to hire a lawyer to defend "
12424 "your right to create. And as lawyers love to forget, our system for "
12425 "defending rights such as fair use is astonishingly bad—in practically "
12426 "every context, but especially here. It costs too much, it delivers too "
12427 "slowly, and what it delivers often has little connection to the justice "
12428 "underlying the claim. The legal system may be tolerable for the very rich. "
12429 "For everyone else, it is an embarrassment to a tradition that prides itself "
12430 "on the rule of law."
12433 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12434 #: freeculture.xml:9272
12436 "Judges and lawyers can tell themselves that fair use provides adequate "
12437 "<quote>breathing room</quote> between regulation by the law and the access "
12438 "the law should allow. But it is a measure of how out of touch our legal "
12439 "system has become that anyone actually believes this. The rules that "
12440 "publishers impose upon writers, the rules that film distributors impose upon "
12441 "filmmakers, the rules that newspapers impose upon journalists— these "
12442 "are the real laws governing creativity. And these rules have little "
12443 "relationship to the <quote>law</quote> with which judges comfort themselves."
12446 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12447 #: freeculture.xml:9283
12449 "For in a world that threatens $150,000 for a single willful infringement of "
12450 "a copyright, and which demands tens of thousands of dollars to even defend "
12451 "against a copyright infringement claim, and which would never return to the "
12452 "wrongfully accused defendant anything of the costs she suffered to defend "
12453 "her right to speak—in that world, the astonishingly broad regulations "
12454 "that pass under the name <quote>copyright</quote> silence speech and "
12455 "creativity. And in that world, it takes a studied blindness for people to "
12456 "continue to believe they live in a culture that is free."
12459 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12460 #: freeculture.xml:9294
12461 msgid "As Jed Horovitz, the businessman behind Video Pipeline, said to me,"
12465 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
12466 #: freeculture.xml:9298
12468 "We're losing [creative] opportunities right and left. Creative people are "
12469 "being forced not to express themselves. Thoughts are not being "
12470 "expressed. And while a lot of stuff may [still] be created, it still won't "
12471 "get distributed. Even if the stuff gets made … you're not going to "
12472 "get it distributed in the mainstream media unless you've got a little note "
12473 "from a lawyer saying, <quote>This has been cleared.</quote> You're not even "
12474 "going to get it on PBS without that kind of permission. That's the point at "
12475 "which they control it."
12478 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
12479 #: freeculture.xml:9311
12480 msgid "Constraining Innovators"
12483 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12484 #: freeculture.xml:9313
12486 "The story of the last section was a crunchy-lefty story—creativity "
12487 "quashed, artists who can't speak, yada yada yada. Maybe that doesn't get you "
12488 "going. Maybe you think there's enough weird art out there, and enough "
12489 "expression that is critical of what seems to be just about everything. And "
12490 "if you think that, you might think there's little in this story to worry "
12494 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12495 #: freeculture.xml:9321
12497 "But there's an aspect of this story that is not lefty in any sense. Indeed, "
12498 "it is an aspect that could be written by the most extreme promarket "
12499 "ideologue. And if you're one of these sorts (and a special one at that, 188 "
12500 "pages into a book like this), then you can see this other aspect by "
12501 "substituting <quote>free market</quote> every place I've spoken of "
12502 "<quote>free culture.</quote> The point is the same, even if the interests "
12503 "affecting culture are more fundamental."
12506 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12507 #: freeculture.xml:9331
12509 "The charge I've been making about the regulation of culture is the same "
12510 "charge free marketers make about regulating markets. Everyone, of course, "
12511 "concedes that some regulation of markets is necessary—at a minimum, we "
12512 "need rules of property and contract, and courts to enforce both. Likewise, "
12513 "in this culture debate, everyone concedes that at least some framework of "
12514 "copyright is also required. But both perspectives vehemently insist that "
12515 "just because some regulation is good, it doesn't follow that more regulation "
12516 "is better. And both perspectives are constantly attuned to the ways in which "
12517 "regulation simply enables the powerful industries of today to protect "
12518 "themselves against the competitors of tomorrow."
12521 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
12522 #: freeculture.xml:9343 freeculture.xml:9451
12523 msgid "Barry, Hank"
12527 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12528 #: freeculture.xml:9345
12530 "This is the single most dramatic effect of the shift in regulatory strategy "
12531 "that I described in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
12532 "linkend=\"property-i\"/>. The consequence of this massive threat of "
12533 "liability tied to the murky boundaries of copyright law is that innovators "
12534 "who want to innovate in this space can safely innovate only if they have the "
12535 "sign-off from last generation's dominant industries. That lesson has been "
12536 "taught through a series of cases that were designed and executed to teach "
12537 "venture capitalists a lesson. That lesson—what former Napster CEO Hank "
12538 "Barry calls a <quote>nuclear pall</quote> that has fallen over the "
12539 "Valley—has been learned."
12542 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12543 #: freeculture.xml:9358
12545 "Consider one example to make the point, a story whose beginning I told in "
12546 "<citetitle>The Future of Ideas</citetitle> and which has progressed in a way "
12547 "that even I (pessimist extraordinaire) would never have predicted."
12550 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
12551 #: freeculture.xml:9362
12552 msgid "Roberts, Michael"
12555 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12556 #: freeculture.xml:9364
12558 "In 1997, Michael Roberts launched a company called MP3.com. MP3.com was "
12559 "keen to remake the music business. Their goal was not just to facilitate new "
12560 "ways to get access to content. Their goal was also to facilitate new ways to "
12561 "create content. Unlike the major labels, MP3.com offered creators a venue to "
12562 "distribute their creativity, without demanding an exclusive engagement from "
12566 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12567 #: freeculture.xml:9372
12569 "To make this system work, however, MP3.com needed a reliable way to "
12570 "recommend music to its users. The idea behind this alternative was to "
12571 "leverage the revealed preferences of music listeners to recommend new "
12572 "artists. If you like Lyle Lovett, you're likely to enjoy Bonnie Raitt. And "
12573 "so on. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
12576 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12577 #: freeculture.xml:9380
12579 "This idea required a simple way to gather data about user preferences. "
12580 "MP3.com came up with an extraordinarily clever way to gather this preference "
12581 "data. In January 2000, the company launched a service called "
12582 "my.mp3.com. Using software provided by MP3.com, a user would sign into an "
12583 "account and then insert into her computer a CD. The software would identify "
12584 "the CD, and then give the user access to that content. So, for example, if "
12585 "you inserted a CD by Jill Sobule, then wherever you were—at work or at "
12586 "home—you could get access to that music once you signed into your "
12587 "account. The system was therefore a kind of music-lockbox."
12591 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12592 #: freeculture.xml:9392
12594 "No doubt some could use this system to illegally copy content. But that "
12595 "opportunity existed with or without MP3.com. The aim of the my.mp3.com "
12596 "service was to give users access to their own content, and as a by-product, "
12597 "by seeing the content they already owned, to discover the kind of content "
12601 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12602 #: freeculture.xml:9401
12604 "To make this system function, however, MP3.com needed to copy 50,000 CDs to "
12605 "a server. (In principle, it could have been the user who uploaded the music, "
12606 "but that would have taken a great deal of time, and would have produced a "
12607 "product of questionable quality.) It therefore purchased 50,000 CDs from a "
12608 "store, and started the process of making copies of those CDs. Again, it "
12609 "would not serve the content from those copies to anyone except those who "
12610 "authenticated that they had a copy of the CD they wanted to access. So while "
12611 "this was 50,000 copies, it was 50,000 copies directed at giving customers "
12612 "something they had already bought."
12615 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12616 #: freeculture.xml:9416
12618 "Nine days after MP3.com launched its service, the five major labels, headed "
12619 "by the RIAA, brought a lawsuit against MP3.com. MP3.com settled with four of "
12620 "the five. Nine months later, a federal judge found MP3.com to have been "
12621 "guilty of willful infringement with respect to the fifth. Applying the law "
12622 "as it is, the judge imposed a fine against MP3.com of $118 million. MP3.com "
12623 "then settled with the remaining plaintiff, Vivendi Universal, paying over "
12624 "$54 million. Vivendi purchased MP3.com just about a year later."
12627 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12628 #: freeculture.xml:9426
12629 msgid "That part of the story I have told before. Now consider its conclusion."
12632 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12633 #: freeculture.xml:9429
12635 "After Vivendi purchased MP3.com, Vivendi turned around and filed a "
12636 "malpractice lawsuit against the lawyers who had advised it that they had a "
12637 "good faith claim that the service they wanted to offer would be considered "
12638 "legal under copyright law. This lawsuit alleged that it should have been "
12639 "obvious that the courts would find this behavior illegal; therefore, this "
12640 "lawsuit sought to punish any lawyer who had dared to suggest that the law "
12641 "was less restrictive than the labels demanded."
12645 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12646 #: freeculture.xml:9439
12648 "The clear purpose of this lawsuit (which was settled for an unspecified "
12649 "amount shortly after the story was no longer covered in the press) was to "
12650 "send an unequivocal message to lawyers advising clients in this space: It is "
12651 "not just your clients who might suffer if the content industry directs its "
12652 "guns against them. It is also you. So those of you who believe the law "
12653 "should be less restrictive should realize that such a view of the law will "
12654 "cost you and your firm dearly."
12657 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
12658 #: freeculture.xml:9450
12659 msgid "Hummer, John"
12662 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
12663 #: freeculture.xml:9452
12664 msgid "Hummer Winblad"
12668 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12669 #: freeculture.xml:9460
12671 "See Joseph Menn, <quote>Universal, EMI Sue Napster Investor,</quote> "
12672 "<citetitle>Los Angeles Times</citetitle>, 23 April 2003. For a parallel "
12673 "argument about the effects on innovation in the distribution of music, see "
12674 "Janelle Brown, <quote>The Music Revolution Will Not Be Digitized,</quote> "
12675 "Salon.com, 1 June 2001, available at <ulink "
12676 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #42</ulink>. See also Jon "
12677 "Healey, <quote>Online Music Services Besieged,</quote> <citetitle>Los "
12678 "Angeles Times</citetitle>, 28 May 2001."
12681 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12682 #: freeculture.xml:9454
12684 "This strategy is not just limited to the lawyers. In April 2003, Universal "
12685 "and EMI brought a lawsuit against Hummer Winblad, the venture capital firm "
12686 "(VC) that had funded Napster at a certain stage of its development, its "
12687 "cofounder ( John Hummer), and general partner (Hank Barry).<placeholder "
12688 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The claim here, as well, was that the VC should "
12689 "have recognized the right of the content industry to control how the "
12690 "industry should develop. They should be held personally liable for funding a "
12691 "company whose business turned out to be beyond the law. Here again, the aim "
12692 "of the lawsuit is transparent: Any VC now recognizes that if you fund a "
12693 "company whose business is not approved of by the dinosaurs, you are at risk "
12694 "not just in the marketplace, but in the courtroom as well. Your investment "
12695 "buys you not only a company, it also buys you a lawsuit. So extreme has the "
12696 "environment become that even car manufacturers are afraid of technologies "
12697 "that touch content. In an article in <citetitle>Business 2.0</citetitle>, "
12698 "Rafe Needleman describes a discussion with BMW: <placeholder "
12699 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/>"
12702 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><indexterm><primary>
12703 #: freeculture.xml:9484
12707 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
12708 #: freeculture.xml:9499
12709 msgid "Needleman, Rafe"
12712 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
12713 #: freeculture.xml:9495
12715 "Rafe Needleman, <quote>Driving in Cars with MP3s,</quote> "
12716 "<citetitle>Business 2.0</citetitle>, 16 June 2003, available at <ulink "
12717 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #43</ulink>. I am grateful to "
12718 "Dr. Mohammad Al-Ubaydli for this example. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
12722 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
12723 #: freeculture.xml:9486
12725 "I asked why, with all the storage capacity and computer power in the car, "
12726 "there was no way to play MP3 files. I was told that BMW engineers in Germany "
12727 "had rigged a new vehicle to play MP3s via the car's built-in sound system, "
12728 "but that the company's marketing and legal departments weren't comfortable "
12729 "with pushing this forward for release stateside. Even today, no new cars are "
12730 "sold in the United States with bona fide MP3 players. … <placeholder "
12731 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
12734 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12735 #: freeculture.xml:9504
12737 "This is the world of the mafia—filled with <quote>your money or your "
12738 "life</quote> offers, governed in the end not by courts but by the threats "
12739 "that the law empowers copyright holders to exercise. It is a system that "
12740 "will obviously and necessarily stifle new innovation. It is hard enough to "
12741 "start a company. It is impossibly hard if that company is constantly "
12742 "threatened by litigation."
12746 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12747 #: freeculture.xml:9514
12749 "The point is not that businesses should have a right to start illegal "
12750 "enterprises. The point is the definition of <quote>illegal.</quote> The law "
12751 "is a mess of uncertainty. We have no good way to know how it should apply to "
12752 "new technologies. Yet by reversing our tradition of judicial deference, and "
12753 "by embracing the astonishingly high penalties that copyright law imposes, "
12754 "that uncertainty now yields a reality which is far more conservative than is "
12755 "right. If the law imposed the death penalty for parking tickets, we'd not "
12756 "only have fewer parking tickets, we'd also have much less driving. The same "
12757 "principle applies to innovation. If innovation is constantly checked by this "
12758 "uncertain and unlimited liability, we will have much less vibrant innovation "
12759 "and much less creativity."
12762 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12763 #: freeculture.xml:9529
12765 "The point is directly parallel to the crunchy-lefty point about fair "
12766 "use. Whatever the <quote>real</quote> law is, realism about the effect of "
12767 "law in both contexts is the same. This wildly punitive system of regulation "
12768 "will systematically stifle creativity and innovation. It will protect some "
12769 "industries and some creators, but it will harm industry and creativity "
12770 "generally. Free market and free culture depend upon vibrant competition. "
12771 "Yet the effect of the law today is to stifle just this kind of competition. "
12772 "The effect is to produce an overregulated culture, just as the effect of too "
12773 "much control in the market is to produce an overregulatedregulated market."
12777 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12778 #: freeculture.xml:9541
12780 "The building of a permission culture, rather than a free culture, is the "
12781 "first important way in which the changes I have described will burden "
12782 "innovation. A permission culture means a lawyer's culture—a culture in "
12783 "which the ability to create requires a call to your lawyer. Again, I am not "
12784 "antilawyer, at least when they're kept in their proper place. I am certainly "
12785 "not antilaw. But our profession has lost the sense of its limits. And "
12786 "leaders in our profession have lost an appreciation of the high costs that "
12787 "our profession imposes upon others. The inefficiency of the law is an "
12788 "embarrassment to our tradition. And while I believe our profession should "
12789 "therefore do everything it can to make the law more efficient, it should at "
12790 "least do everything it can to limit the reach of the law where the law is "
12791 "not doing any good. The transaction costs buried within a permission culture "
12792 "are enough to bury a wide range of creativity. Someone needs to do a lot of "
12793 "justifying to justify that result."
12796 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12797 #: freeculture.xml:9560
12799 "<emphasis role='strong'>The uncertainty</emphasis> of the law is one burden "
12800 "on innovation. There is a second burden that operates more directly. This is "
12801 "the effort by many in the content industry to use the law to directly "
12802 "regulate the technology of the Internet so that it better protects their "
12806 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12807 #: freeculture.xml:9567
12809 "The motivation for this response is obvious. The Internet enables the "
12810 "efficient spread of content. That efficiency is a feature of the Internet's "
12811 "design. But from the perspective of the content industry, this feature is a "
12812 "<quote>bug.</quote> The efficient spread of content means that content "
12813 "distributors have a harder time controlling the distribution of content. "
12814 "One obvious response to this efficiency is thus to make the Internet less "
12815 "efficient. If the Internet enables <quote>piracy,</quote> then, this "
12816 "response says, we should break the kneecaps of the Internet."
12820 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12821 #: freeculture.xml:9582
12823 "<quote>Copyright and Digital Media in a Post-Napster World,</quote> "
12824 "GartnerG2 and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law "
12825 "School (2003), 33–35, available at <ulink "
12826 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #44</ulink>."
12830 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12831 #: freeculture.xml:9595
12832 msgid "GartnerG2, 26–27."
12835 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12836 #: freeculture.xml:9578
12838 "The examples of this form of legislation are many. At the urging of the "
12839 "content industry, some in Congress have threatened legislation that would "
12840 "require computers to determine whether the content they access is protected "
12841 "or not, and to disable the spread of protected content.<placeholder "
12842 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Congress has already launched proceedings to "
12843 "explore a mandatory <quote>broadcast flag</quote> that would be required on "
12844 "any device capable of transmitting digital video (i.e., a computer), and "
12845 "that would disable the copying of any content that is marked with a "
12846 "broadcast flag. Other members of Congress have proposed immunizing content "
12847 "providers from liability for technology they might deploy that would hunt "
12848 "down copyright violators and disable their machines.<placeholder "
12849 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
12853 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12854 #: freeculture.xml:9599
12856 "In one sense, these solutions seem sensible. If the problem is the code, why "
12857 "not regulate the code to remove the problem. But any regulation of technical "
12858 "infrastructure will always be tuned to the particular technology of the "
12859 "day. It will impose significant burdens and costs on the technology, but "
12860 "will likely be eclipsed by advances around exactly those requirements."
12864 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12865 #: freeculture.xml:9613
12867 "See David McGuire, <quote>Tech Execs Square Off Over Piracy,</quote> "
12868 "Newsbytes, February 2002 (Entertainment)."
12871 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
12872 #: freeculture.xml:9619 freeculture.xml:11474
12876 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12877 #: freeculture.xml:9609
12879 "In March 2002, a broad coalition of technology companies, led by Intel, "
12880 "tried to get Congress to see the harm that such legislation would "
12881 "impose.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Their argument was "
12882 "obviously not that copyright should not be protected. Instead, they argued, "
12883 "any protection should not do more harm than good. <placeholder "
12884 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
12887 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12888 #: freeculture.xml:9622
12890 "<emphasis role='strong'>There is one</emphasis> more obvious way in which "
12891 "this war has harmed innovation—again, a story that will be quite "
12892 "familiar to the free market crowd."
12895 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12896 #: freeculture.xml:9627
12898 "Copyright may be property, but like all property, it is also a form of "
12899 "regulation. It is a regulation that benefits some and harms others. When "
12900 "done right, it benefits creators and harms leeches. When done wrong, it is "
12901 "regulation the powerful use to defeat competitors."
12904 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12905 #: freeculture.xml:9639
12907 "Jessica Litman, <citetitle>Digital Copyright</citetitle> (Amherst, N.Y.: "
12908 "Prometheus Books, 2001). <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
12911 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12912 #: freeculture.xml:9633
12914 "As I described in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
12915 "linkend=\"property-i\"/>, despite this feature of copyright as regulation, "
12916 "and subject to important qualifications outlined by Jessica Litman in her "
12917 "book <citetitle>Digital Copyright</citetitle>,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
12918 "id=\"0\"/> overall this history of copyright is not bad. As chapter 10 "
12919 "details, when new technologies have come along, Congress has struck a "
12920 "balance to assure that the new is protected from the old. Compulsory, or "
12921 "statutory, licenses have been one part of that strategy. Free use (as in the "
12922 "case of the VCR) has been another."
12925 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12926 #: freeculture.xml:9650
12928 "But that pattern of deference to new technologies has now changed with the "
12929 "rise of the Internet. Rather than striking a balance between the claims of a "
12930 "new technology and the legitimate rights of content creators, both the "
12931 "courts and Congress have imposed legal restrictions that will have the "
12932 "effect of smothering the new to benefit the old."
12935 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
12936 #: freeculture.xml:9659
12937 msgid "Grokster, Ltd."
12940 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12941 #: freeculture.xml:9659
12943 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> The only circuit court exception "
12944 "is found in <citetitle>Recording Industry Association of America "
12945 "(RIAA)</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Diamond Multimedia Systems</citetitle>, 180 "
12946 "F. 3d 1072 (9th Cir. 1999). There the court of appeals for the Ninth Circuit "
12947 "reasoned that makers of a portable MP3 player were not liable for "
12948 "contributory copyright infringement for a device that is unable to record or "
12949 "redistribute music (a device whose only copying function is to render "
12950 "portable a music file already stored on a user's hard drive). At the "
12951 "district court level, the only exception is found in "
12952 "<citetitle>Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, "
12953 "Inc</citetitle>. v. <citetitle>Grokster, Ltd</citetitle>., 259 F. Supp. 2d "
12954 "1029 (C.D. Cal., 2003), where the court found the link between the "
12955 "distributor and any given user's conduct too attenuated to make the "
12956 "distributor liable for contributory or vicarious infringement liability."
12959 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
12960 #: freeculture.xml:9678
12961 msgid "Tauzin, Billy"
12964 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
12965 #: freeculture.xml:9694
12966 msgid "Hollings, Fritz"
12969 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12970 #: freeculture.xml:9678
12972 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> For example, in July 2002, "
12973 "Representative Howard Berman introduced the Peer-to-Peer Piracy Prevention "
12974 "Act (H.R. 5211), which would immunize copyright holders from liability for "
12975 "damage done to computers when the copyright holders use technology to stop "
12976 "copyright infringement. In August 2002, Representative Billy Tauzin "
12977 "introduced a bill to mandate that technologies capable of rebroadcasting "
12978 "digital copies of films broadcast on TV (i.e., computers) respect a "
12979 "<quote>broadcast flag</quote> that would disable copying of that "
12980 "content. And in March of the same year, Senator Fritz Hollings introduced "
12981 "the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act, which mandated "
12982 "copyright protection technology in all digital media devices. See GartnerG2, "
12983 "<quote>Copyright and Digital Media in a Post-Napster World,</quote> 27 June "
12984 "2003, 33–34, available at <ulink "
12985 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #44</ulink>. <placeholder "
12986 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> "
12987 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/>"
12990 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12991 #: freeculture.xml:9657
12993 "The response by the courts has been fairly universal.<placeholder "
12994 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> It has been mirrored in the responses "
12995 "threatened and actually implemented by Congress. I won't catalog all of "
12996 "those responses here.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> But there is "
12997 "one example that captures the flavor of them all. This is the story of the "
12998 "demise of Internet radio."
13001 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13002 #: freeculture.xml:9707
13004 "As I described in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
13005 "linkend=\"pirates\"/>, when a radio station plays a song, the recording "
13006 "artist doesn't get paid for that <quote>radio performance</quote> unless he "
13007 "or she is also the composer. So, for example if Marilyn Monroe had recorded "
13008 "a version of <quote>Happy Birthday</quote>—to memorialize her famous "
13009 "performance before President Kennedy at Madison Square Garden— then "
13010 "whenever that recording was played on the radio, the current copyright "
13011 "owners of <quote>Happy Birthday</quote> would get some money, whereas "
13012 "Marilyn Monroe would not. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
13015 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13016 #: freeculture.xml:9719
13018 "The reasoning behind this balance struck by Congress makes some sense. The "
13019 "justification was that radio was a kind of advertising. The recording artist "
13020 "thus benefited because by playing her music, the radio station was making it "
13021 "more likely that her records would be purchased. Thus, the recording artist "
13022 "got something, even if only indirectly. Probably this reasoning had less to "
13023 "do with the result than with the power of radio stations: Their lobbyists "
13024 "were quite good at stopping any efforts to get Congress to require "
13025 "compensation to the recording artists."
13028 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13029 #: freeculture.xml:9730
13031 "Enter Internet radio. Like regular radio, Internet radio is a technology to "
13032 "stream content from a broadcaster to a listener. The broadcast travels "
13033 "across the Internet, not across the ether of radio spectrum. Thus, I can "
13034 "<quote>tune in</quote> to an Internet radio station in Berlin while sitting "
13035 "in San Francisco, even though there's no way for me to tune in to a regular "
13036 "radio station much beyond the San Francisco metropolitan area."
13039 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13040 #: freeculture.xml:9739
13042 "This feature of the architecture of Internet radio means that there are "
13043 "potentially an unlimited number of radio stations that a user could tune in "
13044 "to using her computer, whereas under the existing architecture for broadcast "
13045 "radio, there is an obvious limit to the number of broadcasters and clear "
13046 "broadcast frequencies. Internet radio could therefore be more competitive "
13047 "than regular radio; it could provide a wider range of selections. And "
13048 "because the potential audience for Internet radio is the whole world, niche "
13049 "stations could easily develop and market their content to a relatively large "
13050 "number of users worldwide. According to some estimates, more than eighty "
13051 "million users worldwide have tuned in to this new form of radio."
13055 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13056 #: freeculture.xml:9755
13058 "Internet radio is thus to radio what FM was to AM. It is an improvement "
13059 "potentially vastly more significant than the FM improvement over AM, since "
13060 "not only is the technology better, so, too, is the competition. Indeed, "
13061 "there is a direct parallel between the fight to establish FM radio and the "
13062 "fight to protect Internet radio. As one author describes Howard Armstrong's "
13063 "struggle to enable FM radio,"
13067 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
13068 #: freeculture.xml:9779
13069 msgid "Lessing, 239."
13072 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
13073 #: freeculture.xml:9765
13075 "An almost unlimited number of FM stations was possible in the shortwaves, "
13076 "thus ending the unnatural restrictions imposed on radio in the crowded "
13077 "longwaves. If FM were freely developed, the number of stations would be "
13078 "limited only by economics and competition rather than by technical "
13079 "restrictions. … Armstrong likened the situation that had grown up in "
13080 "radio to that following the invention of the printing press, when "
13081 "governments and ruling interests attempted to control this new instrument of "
13082 "mass communications by imposing restrictive licenses on it. This tyranny was "
13083 "broken only when it became possible for men freely to acquire printing "
13084 "presses and freely to run them. FM in this sense was as great an invention "
13085 "as the printing presses, for it gave radio the opportunity to strike off its "
13086 "shackles.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
13090 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13091 #: freeculture.xml:9789
13092 msgid "Ibid., 229."
13095 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13096 #: freeculture.xml:9784
13098 "This potential for FM radio was never realized—not because Armstrong "
13099 "was wrong about the technology, but because he underestimated the power of "
13100 "<quote>vested interests, habits, customs and legislation</quote><placeholder "
13101 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> to retard the growth of this competing "
13105 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13106 #: freeculture.xml:9794
13108 "Now the very same claim could be made about Internet radio. For again, there "
13109 "is no technical limitation that could restrict the number of Internet radio "
13110 "stations. The only restrictions on Internet radio are those imposed by the "
13111 "law. Copyright law is one such law. So the first question we should ask is, "
13112 "what copyright rules would govern Internet radio?"
13116 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13117 #: freeculture.xml:9806
13119 "But here the power of the lobbyists is reversed. Internet radio is a new "
13120 "industry. The recording artists, on the other hand, have a very powerful "
13121 "lobby, the RIAA. Thus when Congress considered the phenomenon of Internet "
13122 "radio in 1995, the lobbyists had primed Congress to adopt a different rule "
13123 "for Internet radio than the rule that applies to terrestrial radio. While "
13124 "terrestrial radio does not have to pay our hypothetical Marilyn Monroe when "
13125 "it plays her hypothetical recording of <quote>Happy Birthday</quote> on the "
13126 "air, <emphasis>Internet radio does</emphasis>. Not only is the law not "
13127 "neutral toward Internet radio—the law actually burdens Internet radio "
13128 "more than it burdens terrestrial radio."
13131 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
13132 #: freeculture.xml:9845
13133 msgid "CARP (Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel)"
13136 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13137 #: freeculture.xml:9828
13139 "This example was derived from fees set by the original Copyright Arbitration "
13140 "Royalty Panel (CARP) proceedings, and is drawn from an example offered by "
13141 "Professor William Fisher. Conference Proceedings, iLaw (Stanford), 3 July "
13142 "2003, on file with author. Professors Fisher and Zittrain submitted "
13143 "testimony in the CARP proceeding that was ultimately rejected. See Jonathan "
13144 "Zittrain, Digital Performance Right in Sound Recordings and Ephemeral "
13145 "Recordings, Docket No. 2000-9, CARP DTRA 1 and 2, available at <ulink "
13146 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #45</ulink>. For an excellent "
13147 "analysis making a similar point, see Randal C. Picker, <quote>Copyright as "
13148 "Entry Policy: The Case of Digital Distribution,</quote> <citetitle>Antitrust "
13149 "Bulletin</citetitle> (Summer/Fall 2002): 461: <quote>This was not confusion, "
13150 "these are just old-fashioned entry barriers. Analog radio stations are "
13151 "protected from digital entrants, reducing entry in radio and diversity. Yes, "
13152 "this is done in the name of getting royalties to copyright holders, but, "
13153 "absent the play of powerful interests, that could have been done in a "
13154 "media-neutral way.</quote> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> "
13155 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
13158 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13159 #: freeculture.xml:9821
13161 "This financial burden is not slight. As Harvard law professor William Fisher "
13162 "estimates, if an Internet radio station distributed adfree popular music to "
13163 "(on average) ten thousand listeners, twenty-four hours a day, the total "
13164 "artist fees that radio station would owe would be over $1 million a "
13165 "year.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> A regular radio station "
13166 "broadcasting the same content would pay no equivalent fee."
13169 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13170 #: freeculture.xml:9853
13172 "The burden is not financial only. Under the original rules that were "
13173 "proposed, an Internet radio station (but not a terrestrial radio station) "
13174 "would have to collect the following data from <emphasis>every listening "
13175 "transaction</emphasis>:"
13178 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13179 #: freeculture.xml:9861
13180 msgid "name of the service;"
13183 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13184 #: freeculture.xml:9864
13185 msgid "channel of the program (AM/FM stations use station ID);"
13188 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13189 #: freeculture.xml:9867
13190 msgid "type of program (archived/looped/live);"
13193 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13194 #: freeculture.xml:9870
13195 msgid "date of transmission;"
13198 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13199 #: freeculture.xml:9873
13200 msgid "time of transmission;"
13203 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13204 #: freeculture.xml:9876
13205 msgid "time zone of origination of transmission;"
13208 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13209 #: freeculture.xml:9879
13210 msgid "numeric designation of the place of the sound recording within the program;"
13213 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13214 #: freeculture.xml:9882
13215 msgid "duration of transmission (to nearest second);"
13218 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13219 #: freeculture.xml:9885
13220 msgid "sound recording title;"
13223 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13224 #: freeculture.xml:9888
13225 msgid "ISRC code of the recording;"
13228 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13229 #: freeculture.xml:9891
13231 "release year of the album per copyright notice and in the case of "
13232 "compilation albums, the release year of the album and copy- right date of "
13236 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13237 #: freeculture.xml:9894
13238 msgid "featured recording artist;"
13241 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13242 #: freeculture.xml:9897
13243 msgid "retail album title;"
13246 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13247 #: freeculture.xml:9900
13248 msgid "recording label;"
13251 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13252 #: freeculture.xml:9903
13253 msgid "UPC code of the retail album;"
13256 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13257 #: freeculture.xml:9906
13258 msgid "catalog number;"
13261 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13262 #: freeculture.xml:9909
13263 msgid "copyright owner information;"
13266 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13267 #: freeculture.xml:9912
13268 msgid "musical genre of the channel or program (station format);"
13271 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13272 #: freeculture.xml:9915
13273 msgid "name of the service or entity;"
13276 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13277 #: freeculture.xml:9918
13278 msgid "channel or program;"
13281 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13282 #: freeculture.xml:9921
13283 msgid "date and time that the user logged in (in the user's time zone);"
13286 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13287 #: freeculture.xml:9924
13288 msgid "date and time that the user logged out (in the user's time zone);"
13291 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13292 #: freeculture.xml:9927
13293 msgid "time zone where the signal was received (user);"
13296 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13297 #: freeculture.xml:9930
13298 msgid "unique user identifier;"
13301 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13302 #: freeculture.xml:9933
13303 msgid "the country in which the user received the transmissions."
13306 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13307 #: freeculture.xml:9938
13309 "The Librarian of Congress eventually suspended these reporting requirements, "
13310 "pending further study. And he also changed the original rates set by the "
13311 "arbitration panel charged with setting rates. But the basic difference "
13312 "between Internet radio and terrestrial radio remains: Internet radio has to "
13313 "pay a <emphasis>type of copyright fee</emphasis> that terrestrial radio does "
13317 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13318 #: freeculture.xml:9946
13320 "Why? What justifies this difference? Was there any study of the economic "
13321 "consequences from Internet radio that would justify these differences? Was "
13322 "the motive to protect artists against piracy?"
13325 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
13326 #: freeculture.xml:9950 freeculture.xml:14641
13327 msgid "Real Networks"
13330 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13331 #: freeculture.xml:9955
13333 "In a rare bit of candor, one RIAA expert admitted what seemed obvious to "
13334 "everyone at the time. As Alex Alben, vice president for Public Policy at "
13335 "Real Networks, told me,"
13339 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
13340 #: freeculture.xml:9961
13342 "The RIAA, which was representing the record labels, presented some testimony "
13343 "about what they thought a willing buyer would pay to a willing seller, and "
13344 "it was much higher. It was ten times higher than what radio stations pay to "
13345 "perform the same songs for the same period of time. And so the attorneys "
13346 "representing the webcasters asked the RIAA, … <quote>How do you come "
13347 "up with a rate that's so much higher? Why is it worth more than radio? "
13348 "Because here we have hundreds of thousands of webcasters who want to pay, "
13349 "and that should establish the market rate, and if you set the rate so high, "
13350 "you're going to drive the small webcasters out of business. …</quote>"
13353 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
13354 #: freeculture.xml:9980
13356 "And the RIAA experts said, <quote>Well, we don't really model this as an "
13357 "industry with thousands of webcasters, <emphasis>we think it should be an "
13358 "industry with, you know, five or seven big players who can pay a high rate "
13359 "and it's a stable, predictable market</emphasis>.</quote> (Emphasis added.)"
13362 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13363 #: freeculture.xml:9989
13365 "Translation: The aim is to use the law to eliminate competition, so that "
13366 "this platform of potentially immense competition, which would cause the "
13367 "diversity and range of content available to explode, would not cause pain to "
13368 "the dinosaurs of old. There is no one, on either the right or the left, who "
13369 "should endorse this use of the law. And yet there is practically no one, on "
13370 "either the right or the left, who is doing anything effective to prevent it."
13373 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
13374 #: freeculture.xml:9999
13375 msgid "Corrupting Citizens"
13378 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13379 #: freeculture.xml:10001
13381 "Overregulation stifles creativity. It smothers innovation. It gives "
13382 "dinosaurs a veto over the future. It wastes the extraordinary opportunity "
13383 "for a democratic creativity that digital technology enables."
13386 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13387 #: freeculture.xml:10007
13389 "In addition to these important harms, there is one more that was important "
13390 "to our forebears, but seems forgotten today. Overregulation corrupts "
13391 "citizens and weakens the rule of law."
13395 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13396 #: freeculture.xml:10016
13398 "Mike Graziano and Lee Rainie, <quote>The Music Downloading Deluge,</quote> "
13399 "Pew Internet and American Life Project (24 April 2001), available at <ulink "
13400 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #46</ulink>. The Pew Internet "
13401 "and American Life Project reported that 37 million Americans had downloaded "
13402 "music files from the Internet by early 2001."
13406 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13407 #: freeculture.xml:10012
13409 "The war that is being waged today is a war of prohibition. As with every war "
13410 "of prohibition, it is targeted against the behavior of a very large number "
13411 "of citizens. According to <citetitle>The New York Times</citetitle>, 43 "
13412 "million Americans downloaded music in May 2002.<placeholder "
13413 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> According to the RIAA, the behavior of those 43 "
13414 "million Americans is a felony. We thus have a set of rules that transform 20 "
13415 "percent of America into criminals. As the RIAA launches lawsuits against not "
13416 "only the Napsters and Kazaas of the world, but against students building "
13417 "search engines, and increasingly against ordinary users downloading content, "
13418 "the technologies for sharing will advance to further protect and hide "
13419 "illegal use. It is an arms race or a civil war, with the extremes of one "
13420 "side inviting a more extreme response by the other."
13424 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13425 #: freeculture.xml:10050
13427 "Alex Pham, <quote>The Labels Strike Back: N.Y. Girl Settles RIAA "
13428 "Case,</quote> <citetitle>Los Angeles Times</citetitle>, 10 September 2003, "
13432 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13433 #: freeculture.xml:10037
13435 "The content industry's tactics exploit the failings of the American legal "
13436 "system. When the RIAA brought suit against Jesse Jordan, it knew that in "
13437 "Jordan it had found a scapegoat, not a defendant. The threat of having to "
13438 "pay either all the money in the world in damages ($15,000,000) or almost all "
13439 "the money in the world to defend against paying all the money in the world "
13440 "in damages ($250,000 in legal fees) led Jordan to choose to pay all the "
13441 "money he had in the world ($12,000) to make the suit go away. The same "
13442 "strategy animates the RIAA's suits against individual users. In September "
13443 "2003, the RIAA sued 261 individuals—including a twelve-year-old girl "
13444 "living in public housing and a seventy-year-old man who had no idea what "
13445 "file sharing was.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> As these "
13446 "scapegoats discovered, it will always cost more to defend against these "
13447 "suits than it would cost to simply settle. (The twelve year old, for "
13448 "example, like Jesse Jordan, paid her life savings of $2,000 to settle the "
13449 "case.) Our law is an awful system for defending rights. It is an "
13450 "embarrassment to our tradition. And the consequence of our law as it is, is "
13451 "that those with the power can use the law to quash any rights they oppose."
13455 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13456 #: freeculture.xml:10072
13458 "Jeffrey A. Miron and Jeffrey Zwiebel, <quote>Alcohol Consumption During "
13459 "Prohibition,</quote> <citetitle>American Economic Review</citetitle> 81, "
13460 "no. 2 (1991): 242."
13464 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13465 #: freeculture.xml:10080
13467 "National Drug Control Policy: Hearing Before the House Government Reform "
13468 "Committee, 108th Cong., 1st sess. (5 March 2003) (statement of John "
13469 "P. Walters, director of National Drug Control Policy)."
13473 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13474 #: freeculture.xml:10090
13476 "See James Andreoni, Brian Erard, and Jonathon Feinstein, <quote>Tax "
13477 "Compliance,</quote> <citetitle>Journal of Economic Literature</citetitle> 36 "
13478 "(1998): 818 (survey of compliance literature)."
13481 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
13482 #: freeculture.xml:10097
13483 msgid "alcohol prohibition"
13486 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13487 #: freeculture.xml:10062
13489 "Wars of prohibition are nothing new in America. This one is just something "
13490 "more extreme than anything we've seen before. We experimented with alcohol "
13491 "prohibition, at a time when the per capita consumption of alcohol was 1.5 "
13492 "gallons per capita per year. The war against drinking initially reduced that "
13493 "consumption to just 30 percent of its preprohibition levels, but by the end "
13494 "of prohibition, consumption was up to 70 percent of the preprohibition "
13495 "level. Americans were drinking just about as much, but now, a vast number "
13496 "were criminals.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> We have launched a "
13497 "war on drugs aimed at reducing the consumption of regulated narcotics that 7 "
13498 "percent (or 16 million) Americans now use.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
13499 "id=\"1\"/> That is a drop from the high (so to speak) in 1979 of 14 percent "
13500 "of the population. We regulate automobiles to the point where the vast "
13501 "majority of Americans violate the law every day. We run such a complex tax "
13502 "system that a majority of cash businesses regularly cheat.<placeholder "
13503 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/> We pride ourselves on our <quote>free "
13504 "society,</quote> but an endless array of ordinary behavior is regulated "
13505 "within our society. And as a result, a huge proportion of Americans "
13506 "regularly violate at least some law. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
13510 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
13511 #: freeculture.xml:10115
13512 msgid "law schools"
13515 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13516 #: freeculture.xml:10100
13518 "This state of affairs is not without consequence. It is a particularly "
13519 "salient issue for teachers like me, whose job it is to teach law students "
13520 "about the importance of <quote>ethics.</quote> As my colleague Charlie "
13521 "Nesson told a class at Stanford, each year law schools admit thousands of "
13522 "students who have illegally downloaded music, illegally consumed alcohol and "
13523 "sometimes drugs, illegally worked without paying taxes, illegally driven "
13524 "cars. These are kids for whom behaving illegally is increasingly the "
13525 "norm. And then we, as law professors, are supposed to teach them how to "
13526 "behave ethically—how to say no to bribes, or keep client funds "
13527 "separate, or honor a demand to disclose a document that will mean that your "
13528 "case is over. Generations of Americans—more significantly in some "
13529 "parts of America than in others, but still, everywhere in America "
13530 "today—can't live their lives both normally and legally, since "
13531 "<quote>normally</quote> entails a certain degree of illegality. "
13532 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
13535 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13536 #: freeculture.xml:10118
13538 "The response to this general illegality is either to enforce the law more "
13539 "severely or to change the law. We, as a society, have to learn how to make "
13540 "that choice more rationally. Whether a law makes sense depends, in part, at "
13541 "least, upon whether the costs of the law, both intended and collateral, "
13542 "outweigh the benefits. If the costs, intended and collateral, do outweigh "
13543 "the benefits, then the law ought to be changed. Alternatively, if the costs "
13544 "of the existing system are much greater than the costs of an alternative, "
13545 "then we have a good reason to consider the alternative."
13549 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13550 #: freeculture.xml:10131
13552 "My point is not the idiotic one: Just because people violate a law, we "
13553 "should therefore repeal it. Obviously, we could reduce murder statistics "
13554 "dramatically by legalizing murder on Wednesdays and Fridays. But that "
13555 "wouldn't make any sense, since murder is wrong every day of the week. A "
13556 "society is right to ban murder always and everywhere."
13559 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13560 #: freeculture.xml:10138
13562 "My point is instead one that democracies understood for generations, but "
13563 "that we recently have learned to forget. The rule of law depends upon people "
13564 "obeying the law. The more often, and more repeatedly, we as citizens "
13565 "experience violating the law, the less we respect the law. Obviously, in "
13566 "most cases, the important issue is the law, not respect for the law. I don't "
13567 "care whether the rapist respects the law or not; I want to catch and "
13568 "incarcerate the rapist. But I do care whether my students respect the "
13569 "law. And I do care if the rules of law sow increasing disrespect because of "
13570 "the extreme of regulation they impose. Twenty million Americans have come "
13571 "of age since the Internet introduced this different idea of "
13572 "<quote>sharing.</quote> We need to be able to call these twenty million "
13573 "Americans <quote>citizens,</quote> not <quote>felons.</quote>"
13576 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13577 #: freeculture.xml:10152
13579 "When at least forty-three million citizens download content from the "
13580 "Internet, and when they use tools to combine that content in ways "
13581 "unauthorized by copyright holders, the first question we should be asking is "
13582 "not how best to involve the FBI. The first question should be whether this "
13583 "particular prohibition is really necessary in order to achieve the proper "
13584 "ends that copyright law serves. Is there another way to assure that artists "
13585 "get paid without transforming forty-three million Americans into felons? "
13586 "Does it make sense if there are other ways to assure that artists get paid "
13587 "without transforming America into a nation of felons?"
13590 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13591 #: freeculture.xml:10164
13592 msgid "This abstract point can be made more clear with a particular example."
13596 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13597 #: freeculture.xml:10167
13599 "We all own CDs. Many of us still own phonograph records. These pieces of "
13600 "plastic encode music that in a certain sense we have bought. The law "
13601 "protects our right to buy and sell that plastic: It is not a copyright "
13602 "infringement for me to sell all my classical records at a used record store "
13603 "and buy jazz records to replace them. That <quote>use</quote> of the "
13604 "recordings is free."
13607 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13608 #: freeculture.xml:10178
13610 "But as the MP3 craze has demonstrated, there is another use of phonograph "
13611 "records that is effectively free. Because these recordings were made without "
13612 "copy-protection technologies, I am <quote>free</quote> to copy, or "
13613 "<quote>rip,</quote> music from my records onto a computer hard disk. Indeed, "
13614 "Apple Corporation went so far as to suggest that <quote>freedom</quote> was "
13615 "a right: In a series of commercials, Apple endorsed the <quote>Rip, Mix, "
13616 "Burn</quote> capacities of digital technologies."
13619 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
13620 #: freeculture.xml:10186
13624 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13625 #: freeculture.xml:10188
13627 "This <quote>use</quote> of my records is certainly valuable. I have begun a "
13628 "large process at home of ripping all of my and my wife's CDs, and storing "
13629 "them in one archive. Then, using Apple's iTunes, or a wonderful program "
13630 "called Andromeda, we can build different play lists of our music: Bach, "
13631 "Baroque, Love Songs, Love Songs of Significant Others—the potential is "
13632 "endless. And by reducing the costs of mixing play lists, these technologies "
13633 "help build a creativity with play lists that is itself independently "
13634 "valuable. Compilations of songs are creative and meaningful in their own "
13638 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13639 #: freeculture.xml:10199
13641 "This use is enabled by unprotected media—either CDs or records. But "
13642 "unprotected media also enable file sharing. File sharing threatens (or so "
13643 "the content industry believes) the ability of creators to earn a fair return "
13644 "from their creativity. And thus, many are beginning to experiment with "
13645 "technologies to eliminate unprotected media. These technologies, for "
13646 "example, would enable CDs that could not be ripped. Or they might enable spy "
13647 "programs to identify ripped content on people's machines."
13651 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13652 #: freeculture.xml:10209
13654 "If these technologies took off, then the building of large archives of your "
13655 "own music would become quite difficult. You might hang in hacker circles, "
13656 "and get technology to disable the technologies that protect the "
13657 "content. Trading in those technologies is illegal, but maybe that doesn't "
13658 "bother you much. In any case, for the vast majority of people, these "
13659 "protection technologies would effectively destroy the archiving use of "
13660 "CDs. The technology, in other words, would force us all back to the world "
13661 "where we either listened to music by manipulating pieces of plastic or were "
13662 "part of a massively complex <quote>digital rights management</quote> system."
13665 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13666 #: freeculture.xml:10223
13668 "If the only way to assure that artists get paid were the elimination of the "
13669 "ability to freely move content, then these technologies to interfere with "
13670 "the freedom to move content would be justifiable. But what if there were "
13671 "another way to assure that artists are paid, without locking down any "
13672 "content? What if, in other words, a different system could assure "
13673 "compensation to artists while also preserving the freedom to move content "
13677 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13678 #: freeculture.xml:10232
13680 "My point just now is not to prove that there is such a system. I offer a "
13681 "version of such a system in the last chapter of this book. For now, the only "
13682 "point is the relatively uncontroversial one: If a different system achieved "
13683 "the same legitimate objectives that the existing copyright system achieved, "
13684 "but left consumers and creators much more free, then we'd have a very good "
13685 "reason to pursue this alternative—namely, freedom. The choice, in "
13686 "other words, would not be between property and piracy; the choice would be "
13687 "between different property systems and the freedoms each allowed."
13690 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13691 #: freeculture.xml:10243
13693 "I believe there is a way to assure that artists are paid without turning "
13694 "forty-three million Americans into felons. But the salient feature of this "
13695 "alternative is that it would lead to a very different market for producing "
13696 "and distributing creativity. The dominant few, who today control the vast "
13697 "majority of the distribution of content in the world, would no longer "
13698 "exercise this extreme of control. Rather, they would go the way of the "
13699 "horse-drawn buggy."
13702 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13703 #: freeculture.xml:10252
13705 "Except that this generation's buggy manufacturers have already saddled "
13706 "Congress, and are riding the law to protect themselves against this new form "
13707 "of competition. For them the choice is between fortythree million Americans "
13708 "as criminals and their own survival."
13712 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13713 #: freeculture.xml:10258
13715 "It is understandable why they choose as they do. It is not understandable "
13716 "why we as a democracy continue to choose as we do. Jack Valenti is charming; "
13717 "but not so charming as to justify giving up a tradition as deep and "
13718 "important as our tradition of free culture."
13721 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13722 #: freeculture.xml:10271
13724 "<emphasis role='strong'>There's one more</emphasis> aspect to this "
13725 "corruption that is particularly important to civil liberties, and follows "
13726 "directly from any war of prohibition. As Electronic Frontier Foundation "
13727 "attorney Fred von Lohmann describes, this is the <quote>collateral "
13728 "damage</quote> that <quote>arises whenever you turn a very large percentage "
13729 "of the population into criminals.</quote> This is the collateral damage to "
13730 "civil liberties generally."
13733 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
13734 #: freeculture.xml:10282 freeculture.xml:10392
13735 msgid "von Lohmann, Fred"
13738 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13739 #: freeculture.xml:10280
13741 "<quote>If you can treat someone as a putative lawbreaker,</quote> von "
13742 "Lohmann explains, <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
13745 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
13746 #: freeculture.xml:10286
13748 "then all of a sudden a lot of basic civil liberty protections evaporate to "
13749 "one degree or another. … If you're a copyright infringer, how can you "
13750 "hope to have any privacy rights? If you're a copyright infringer, how can "
13751 "you hope to be secure against seizures of your computer? How can you hope to "
13752 "continue to receive Internet access? … Our sensibilities change as "
13753 "soon as we think, <quote>Oh, well, but that person's a criminal, a "
13754 "lawbreaker.</quote> Well, what this campaign against file sharing has done "
13755 "is turn a remarkable percentage of the American Internet-using population "
13756 "into <quote>lawbreakers.</quote>"
13759 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13760 #: freeculture.xml:10298
13762 "And the consequence of this transformation of the American public into "
13763 "criminals is that it becomes trivial, as a matter of due process, to "
13764 "effectively erase much of the privacy most would presume."
13767 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13768 #: freeculture.xml:10303
13770 "Users of the Internet began to see this generally in 2003 as the RIAA "
13771 "launched its campaign to force Internet service providers to turn over the "
13772 "names of customers who the RIAA believed were violating copyright "
13773 "law. Verizon fought that demand and lost. With a simple request to a judge, "
13774 "and without any notice to the customer at all, the identity of an Internet "
13775 "user is revealed."
13779 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13780 #: freeculture.xml:10321
13782 "See Frank Ahrens, <quote>RIAA's Lawsuits Meet Surprised Targets; Single "
13783 "Mother in Calif., 12-Year-Old Girl in N.Y. Among Defendants,</quote> "
13784 "<citetitle>Washington Post</citetitle>, 10 September 2003, E1; Chris Cobbs, "
13785 "<quote>Worried Parents Pull Plug on File `Stealing'; With the Music Industry "
13786 "Cracking Down on File Swapping, Parents are Yanking Software from Home PCs "
13787 "to Avoid Being Sued,</quote> <citetitle>Orlando Sentinel "
13788 "Tribune</citetitle>, 30 August 2003, C1; Jefferson Graham, <quote>Recording "
13789 "Industry Sues Parents,</quote> <citetitle>USA Today</citetitle>, 15 "
13790 "September 2003, 4D; John Schwartz, <quote>She Says She's No Music Pirate. No "
13791 "Snoop Fan, Either,</quote> <citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 25 "
13792 "September 2003, C1; Margo Varadi, <quote>Is Brianna a Criminal?</quote> "
13793 "<citetitle>Toronto Star</citetitle>, 18 September 2003, P7."
13796 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13797 #: freeculture.xml:10312
13799 "The RIAA then expanded this campaign, by announcing a general strategy to "
13800 "sue individual users of the Internet who are alleged to have downloaded "
13801 "copyrighted music from file-sharing systems. But as we've seen, the "
13802 "potential damages from these suits are astronomical: If a family's computer "
13803 "is used to download a single CD's worth of music, the family could be liable "
13804 "for $2 million in damages. That didn't stop the RIAA from suing a number of "
13805 "these families, just as they had sued Jesse Jordan.<placeholder "
13806 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
13810 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13811 #: freeculture.xml:10339
13813 "See <quote>Revealed: How RIAA Tracks Downloaders: Music Industry Discloses "
13814 "Some Methods Used,</quote> CNN.com, available at <ulink "
13815 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #47</ulink>."
13818 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13819 #: freeculture.xml:10335
13821 "Even this understates the espionage that is being waged by the RIAA. A "
13822 "report from CNN late last summer described a strategy the RIAA had adopted "
13823 "to track Napster users.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Using a "
13824 "sophisticated hashing algorithm, the RIAA took what is in effect a "
13825 "fingerprint of every song in the Napster catalog. Any copy of one of those "
13826 "MP3s will have the same <quote>fingerprint.</quote>"
13830 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13831 #: freeculture.xml:10360
13833 "See Jeff Adler, <quote>Cambridge: On Campus, Pirates Are Not "
13834 "Penitent,</quote> <citetitle>Boston Globe</citetitle>, 18 May 2003, City "
13835 "Weekly, 1; Frank Ahrens, <quote>Four Students Sued over Music Sites; "
13836 "Industry Group Targets File Sharing at Colleges,</quote> "
13837 "<citetitle>Washington Post</citetitle>, 4 April 2003, E1; Elizabeth "
13838 "Armstrong, <quote>Students `Rip, Mix, Burn' at Their Own Risk,</quote> "
13839 "<citetitle>Christian Science Monitor</citetitle>, 2 September 2003, 20; "
13840 "Robert Becker and Angela Rozas, <quote>Music Pirate Hunt Turns to Loyola; "
13841 "Two Students Names Are Handed Over; Lawsuit Possible,</quote> "
13842 "<citetitle>Chicago Tribune</citetitle>, 16 July 2003, 1C; Beth Cox, "
13843 "<quote>RIAA Trains Antipiracy Guns on Universities,</quote> "
13844 "<citetitle>Internet News</citetitle>, 30 January 2003, available at <ulink "
13845 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #48</ulink>; Benny Evangelista, "
13846 "<quote>Download Warning 101: Freshman Orientation This Fall to Include "
13847 "Record Industry Warnings Against File Sharing,</quote> <citetitle>San "
13848 "Francisco Chronicle</citetitle>, 11 August 2003, E11; <quote>Raid, Letters "
13849 "Are Weapons at Universities,</quote> <citetitle>USA Today</citetitle>, 26 "
13850 "September 2000, 3D."
13853 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13854 #: freeculture.xml:10348
13856 "So imagine the following not-implausible scenario: Imagine a friend gives a "
13857 "CD to your daughter—a collection of songs just like the cassettes you "
13858 "used to make as a kid. You don't know, and neither does your daughter, where "
13859 "these songs came from. But she copies these songs onto her computer. She "
13860 "then takes her computer to college and connects it to a college network, and "
13861 "if the college network is <quote>cooperating</quote> with the RIAA's "
13862 "espionage, and she hasn't properly protected her content from the network "
13863 "(do you know how to do that yourself ?), then the RIAA will be able to "
13864 "identify your daughter as a <quote>criminal.</quote> And under the rules "
13865 "that universities are beginning to deploy,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
13866 "id=\"0\"/> your daughter can lose the right to use the university's computer "
13867 "network. She can, in some cases, be expelled."
13870 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13871 #: freeculture.xml:10380
13873 "Now, of course, she'll have the right to defend herself. You can hire a "
13874 "lawyer for her (at $300 per hour, if you're lucky), and she can plead that "
13875 "she didn't know anything about the source of the songs or that they came "
13876 "from Napster. And it may well be that the university believes her. But the "
13877 "university might not believe her. It might treat this "
13878 "<quote>contraband</quote> as presumptive of guilt. And as any number of "
13879 "college students have already learned, our presumptions about innocence "
13880 "disappear in the middle of wars of prohibition. This war is no different. "
13881 "Says von Lohmann, <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
13884 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
13885 #: freeculture.xml:10396
13887 "So when we're talking about numbers like forty to sixty million Americans "
13888 "that are essentially copyright infringers, you create a situation where the "
13889 "civil liberties of those people are very much in peril in a general "
13890 "matter. [I don't] think [there is any] analog where you could randomly "
13891 "choose any person off the street and be confident that they were committing "
13892 "an unlawful act that could put them on the hook for potential felony "
13893 "liability or hundreds of millions of dollars of civil liability. Certainly "
13894 "we all speed, but speeding isn't the kind of an act for which we routinely "
13895 "forfeit civil liberties. Some people use drugs, and I think that's the "
13896 "closest analog, [but] many have noted that the war against drugs has eroded "
13897 "all of our civil liberties because it's treated so many Americans as "
13898 "criminals. Well, I think it's fair to say that file sharing is an order of "
13899 "magnitude larger number of Americans than drug use. … If forty to "
13900 "sixty million Americans have become lawbreakers, then we're really on a "
13901 "slippery slope to lose a lot of civil liberties for all forty to sixty "
13905 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13906 #: freeculture.xml:10416
13908 "When forty to sixty million Americans are considered "
13909 "<quote>criminals</quote> under the law, and when the law could achieve the "
13910 "same objective— securing rights to authors—without these "
13911 "millions being considered <quote>criminals,</quote> who is the villain? "
13912 "Americans or the law? Which is American, a constant war on our own people or "
13913 "a concerted effort through our democracy to change our law?"
13916 #. type: Content of: <book><part><title>
13917 #: freeculture.xml:10429
13921 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
13922 #: freeculture.xml:10434
13924 "<emphasis role='strong'>So here's</emphasis> the picture: You're standing at "
13925 "the side of the road. Your car is on fire. You are angry and upset because "
13926 "in part you helped start the fire. Now you don't know how to put it "
13927 "out. Next to you is a bucket, filled with gasoline. Obviously, gasoline "
13928 "won't put the fire out."
13931 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
13932 #: freeculture.xml:10441
13934 "As you ponder the mess, someone else comes along. In a panic, she grabs the "
13935 "bucket. Before you have a chance to tell her to stop—or before she "
13936 "understands just why she should stop—the bucket is in the air. The "
13937 "gasoline is about to hit the blazing car. And the fire that gasoline will "
13938 "ignite is about to ignite everything around."
13941 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
13942 #: freeculture.xml:10449
13944 "<emphasis role='strong'>A war</emphasis> about copyright rages all "
13945 "around—and we're all focusing on the wrong thing. No doubt, current "
13946 "technologies threaten existing businesses. No doubt they may threaten "
13947 "artists. But technologies change. The industry and technologists have "
13948 "plenty of ways to use technology to protect themselves against the current "
13949 "threats of the Internet. This is a fire that if let alone would burn itself "
13954 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
13955 #: freeculture.xml:10459
13957 "Yet policy makers are not willing to leave this fire to itself. Primed with "
13958 "plenty of lobbyists' money, they are keen to intervene to eliminate the "
13959 "problem they perceive. But the problem they perceive is not the real threat "
13960 "this culture faces. For while we watch this small fire in the corner, there "
13961 "is a massive change in the way culture is made that is happening all around."
13964 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
13965 #: freeculture.xml:10467
13967 "Somehow we have to find a way to turn attention to this more important and "
13968 "fundamental issue. Somehow we have to find a way to avoid pouring gasoline "
13972 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
13973 #: freeculture.xml:10472
13975 "We have not found that way yet. Instead, we seem trapped in a simpler, "
13976 "binary view. However much many people push to frame this debate more "
13977 "broadly, it is the simple, binary view that remains. We rubberneck to look "
13978 "at the fire when we should be keeping our eyes on the road."
13981 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
13982 #: freeculture.xml:10478
13984 "This challenge has been my life these last few years. It has also been my "
13985 "failure. In the two chapters that follow, I describe one small brace of "
13986 "efforts, so far failed, to find a way to refocus this debate. We must "
13987 "understand these failures if we're to understand what success will require."
13990 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
13991 #: freeculture.xml:10488
13992 msgid "CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Eldred"
13995 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
13996 #: freeculture.xml:10490
13997 msgid "Hawthorne, Nathaniel"
14000 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14001 #: freeculture.xml:10493
14003 "<emphasis role='strong'>In 1995</emphasis>, a father was frustrated that his "
14004 "daughters didn't seem to like Hawthorne. No doubt there was more than one "
14005 "such father, but at least one did something about it. Eric Eldred, a retired "
14006 "computer programmer living in New Hampshire, decided to put Hawthorne on the "
14007 "Web. An electronic version, Eldred thought, with links to pictures and "
14008 "explanatory text, would make this nineteenth-century author's work come "
14012 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14013 #: freeculture.xml:10502
14015 "It didn't work—at least for his daughters. They didn't find Hawthorne "
14016 "any more interesting than before. But Eldred's experiment gave birth to a "
14017 "hobby, and his hobby begat a cause: Eldred would build a library of public "
14018 "domain works by scanning these works and making them available for free."
14022 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14023 #: freeculture.xml:10509
14025 "Eldred's library was not simply a copy of certain public domain works, "
14026 "though even a copy would have been of great value to people across the world "
14027 "who can't get access to printed versions of these works. Instead, Eldred was "
14028 "producing derivative works from these public domain works. Just as Disney "
14029 "turned Grimm into stories more accessible to the twentieth century, Eldred "
14030 "transformed Hawthorne, and many others, into a form more "
14031 "accessible—technically accessible—today."
14034 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14035 #: freeculture.xml:10520
14037 "Eldred's freedom to do this with Hawthorne's work grew from the same source "
14038 "as Disney's. Hawthorne's <citetitle>Scarlet Letter</citetitle> had passed "
14039 "into the public domain in 1907. It was free for anyone to take without the "
14040 "permission of the Hawthorne estate or anyone else. Some, such as Dover Press "
14041 "and Penguin Classics, take works from the public domain and produce printed "
14042 "editions, which they sell in bookstores across the country. Others, such as "
14043 "Disney, take these stories and turn them into animated cartoons, sometimes "
14044 "successfully (<citetitle>Cinderella</citetitle>), sometimes not "
14045 "(<citetitle>The Hunchback of Notre Dame</citetitle>, <citetitle>Treasure "
14046 "Planet</citetitle>). These are all commercial publications of public domain "
14051 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14052 #: freeculture.xml:10544
14054 "There's a parallel here with pornography that is a bit hard to describe, but "
14055 "it's a strong one. One phenomenon that the Internet created was a world of "
14056 "noncommercial pornographers—people who were distributing porn but were "
14057 "not making money directly or indirectly from that distribution. Such a "
14058 "class didn't exist before the Internet came into being because the costs of "
14059 "distributing porn were so high. Yet this new class of distributors got "
14060 "special attention in the Supreme Court, when the Court struck down the "
14061 "Communications Decency Act of 1996. It was partly because of the burden on "
14062 "noncommercial speakers that the statute was found to exceed Congress's "
14063 "power. The same point could have been made about noncommercial publishers "
14064 "after the advent of the Internet. The Eric Eldreds of the world before the "
14065 "Internet were extremely few. Yet one would think it at least as important to "
14066 "protect the Eldreds of the world as to protect noncommercial pornographers."
14069 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14070 #: freeculture.xml:10533
14072 "The Internet created the possibility of noncommercial publications of public "
14073 "domain works. Eldred's is just one example. There are literally thousands of "
14074 "others. Hundreds of thousands from across the world have discovered this "
14075 "platform of expression and now use it to share works that are, by law, free "
14076 "for the taking. This has produced what we might call the "
14077 "<quote>noncommercial publishing industry,</quote> which before the Internet "
14078 "was limited to people with large egos or with political or social "
14079 "causes. But with the Internet, it includes a wide range of individuals and "
14080 "groups dedicated to spreading culture generally.<placeholder "
14081 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
14084 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14085 #: freeculture.xml:10561
14087 "As I said, Eldred lives in New Hampshire. In 1998, Robert Frost's collection "
14088 "of poems <citetitle>New Hampshire</citetitle> was slated to pass into the "
14089 "public domain. Eldred wanted to post that collection in his free public "
14090 "library. But Congress got in the way. As I described in chapter <xref "
14091 "xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"property-i\"/>, in 1998, for the "
14092 "eleventh time in forty years, Congress extended the terms of existing "
14093 "copyrights—this time by twenty years. Eldred would not be free to add "
14094 "any works more recent than 1923 to his collection until 2019. Indeed, no "
14095 "copyrighted work would pass into the public domain until that year (and not "
14096 "even then, if Congress extends the term again). By contrast, in the same "
14097 "period, more than 1 million patents will pass into the public domain."
14100 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
14101 #: freeculture.xml:10574 freeculture.xml:10584
14105 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
14106 #: freeculture.xml:10575 freeculture.xml:10585
14107 msgid "Bono, Sonny"
14110 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14111 #: freeculture.xml:10584
14113 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
14114 "id=\"1\"/> The full text is: <quote>Sonny [Bono] wanted the term of "
14115 "copyright protection to last forever. I am informed by staff that such a "
14116 "change would violate the Constitution. I invite all of you to work with me "
14117 "to strengthen our copyright laws in all of the ways available to us. As you "
14118 "know, there is also Jack Valenti's proposal for a term to last forever less "
14119 "one day. Perhaps the Committee may look at that next Congress,</quote> 144 "
14120 "Cong. Rec. H9946, 9951-2 (October 7, 1998)."
14123 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14124 #: freeculture.xml:10579
14126 "This was the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA), enacted in "
14127 "memory of the congressman and former musician Sonny Bono, who, his widow, "
14128 "Mary Bono, says, believed that <quote>copyrights should be "
14129 "forever.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
14132 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14133 #: freeculture.xml:10597
14135 "Eldred decided to fight this law. He first resolved to fight it through "
14136 "civil disobedience. In a series of interviews, Eldred announced that he "
14137 "would publish as planned, CTEA notwithstanding. But because of a second law "
14138 "passed in 1998, the NET (No Electronic Theft) Act, his act of publishing "
14139 "would make Eldred a felon—whether or not anyone complained. This was a "
14140 "dangerous strategy for a disabled programmer to undertake."
14143 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14144 #: freeculture.xml:10606
14146 "It was here that I became involved in Eldred's battle. I was a "
14147 "constitutional scholar whose first passion was constitutional "
14148 "interpretation. And though constitutional law courses never focus upon the "
14149 "Progress Clause of the Constitution, it had always struck me as importantly "
14150 "different. As you know, the Constitution says,"
14153 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
14154 #: freeculture.xml:10617
14156 "Congress has the power to promote the Progress of Science … by "
14157 "securing for limited Times to Authors … exclusive Right to their "
14158 "… Writings. …"
14161 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14162 #: freeculture.xml:10623
14164 "As I've described, this clause is unique within the power-granting clause of "
14165 "Article I, section 8 of our Constitution. Every other clause granting power "
14166 "to Congress simply says Congress has the power to do something—for "
14167 "example, to regulate <quote>commerce among the several states</quote> or "
14168 "<quote>declare War.</quote> But here, the <quote>something</quote> is "
14169 "something quite specific—to <quote>promote … "
14170 "Progress</quote>—through means that are also specific— by "
14171 "<quote>securing</quote> <quote>exclusive Rights</quote> (i.e., copyrights) "
14172 "<quote>for limited Times.</quote>"
14175 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
14176 #: freeculture.xml:10642 freeculture.xml:12127
14177 msgid "Jaszi, Peter"
14180 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14181 #: freeculture.xml:10633
14183 "In the past forty years, Congress has gotten into the practice of extending "
14184 "existing terms of copyright protection. What puzzled me about this was, if "
14185 "Congress has the power to extend existing terms, then the Constitution's "
14186 "requirement that terms be <quote>limited</quote> will have no practical "
14187 "effect. If every time a copyright is about to expire, Congress has the power "
14188 "to extend its term, then Congress can achieve what the Constitution plainly "
14189 "forbids—perpetual terms <quote>on the installment plan,</quote> as "
14190 "Professor Peter Jaszi so nicely put it. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
14194 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14195 #: freeculture.xml:10645
14197 "As an academic, my first response was to hit the books. I remember sitting "
14198 "late at the office, scouring on-line databases for any serious consideration "
14199 "of the question. No one had ever challenged Congress's practice of extending "
14200 "existing terms. That failure may in part be why Congress seemed so "
14201 "untroubled in its habit. That, and the fact that the practice had become so "
14202 "lucrative for Congress. Congress knows that copyright owners will be willing "
14203 "to pay a great deal of money to see their copyright terms extended. And so "
14204 "Congress is quite happy to keep this gravy train going."
14207 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14208 #: freeculture.xml:10656
14210 "For this is the core of the corruption in our present system of "
14211 "government. <quote>Corruption</quote> not in the sense that representatives "
14212 "are bribed. Rather, <quote>corruption</quote> in the sense that the system "
14213 "induces the beneficiaries of Congress's acts to raise and give money to "
14214 "Congress to induce it to act. There's only so much time; there's only so "
14215 "much Congress can do. Why not limit its actions to those things it must "
14216 "do—and those things that pay? Extending copyright terms pays."
14219 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14220 #: freeculture.xml:10665
14222 "If that's not obvious to you, consider the following: Say you're one of the "
14223 "very few lucky copyright owners whose copyright continues to make money one "
14224 "hundred years after it was created. The Estate of Robert Frost is a good "
14225 "example. Frost died in 1963. His poetry continues to be extraordinarily "
14226 "valuable. Thus the Robert Frost estate benefits greatly from any extension "
14227 "of copyright, since no publisher would pay the estate any money if the poems "
14228 "Frost wrote could be published by anyone for free."
14231 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14232 #: freeculture.xml:10675
14234 "So imagine the Robert Frost estate is earning $100,000 a year from three of "
14235 "Frost's poems. And imagine the copyright for those poems is about to "
14236 "expire. You sit on the board of the Robert Frost estate. Your financial "
14237 "adviser comes to your board meeting with a very grim report:"
14241 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14242 #: freeculture.xml:10682
14244 "<quote>Next year,</quote> the adviser announces, <quote>our copyrights in "
14245 "works A, B, and C will expire. That means that after next year, we will no "
14246 "longer be receiving the annual royalty check of $100,000 from the publishers "
14247 "of those works.</quote>"
14250 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14251 #: freeculture.xml:10690
14253 "<quote>There's a proposal in Congress, however,</quote> she continues, "
14254 "<quote>that could change this. A few congressmen are floating a bill to "
14255 "extend the terms of copyright by twenty years. That bill would be "
14256 "extraordinarily valuable to us. So we should hope this bill passes.</quote>"
14259 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14260 #: freeculture.xml:10696
14262 "<quote>Hope?</quote> a fellow board member says. <quote>Can't we be doing "
14263 "something about it?</quote>"
14266 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14267 #: freeculture.xml:10700
14269 "<quote>Well, obviously, yes,</quote> the adviser responds. <quote>We could "
14270 "contribute to the campaigns of a number of representatives to try to assure "
14271 "that they support the bill.</quote>"
14274 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14275 #: freeculture.xml:10705
14277 "You hate politics. You hate contributing to campaigns. So you want to know "
14278 "whether this disgusting practice is worth it. <quote>How much would we get "
14279 "if this extension were passed?</quote> you ask the adviser. <quote>How much "
14280 "is it worth?</quote>"
14283 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14284 #: freeculture.xml:10711
14286 "<quote>Well,</quote> the adviser says, <quote>if you're confident that you "
14287 "will continue to get at least $100,000 a year from these copyrights, and you "
14288 "use the `discount rate' that we use to evaluate estate investments (6 "
14289 "percent), then this law would be worth $1,146,000 to the estate.</quote>"
14292 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14293 #: freeculture.xml:10717
14295 "You're a bit shocked by the number, but you quickly come to the correct "
14299 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14300 #: freeculture.xml:10721
14302 "<quote>So you're saying it would be worth it for us to pay more than "
14303 "$1,000,000 in campaign contributions if we were confident those "
14304 "contributions would assure that the bill was passed?</quote>"
14307 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14308 #: freeculture.xml:10727
14310 "<quote>Absolutely,</quote> the adviser responds. <quote>It is worth it to "
14311 "you to contribute up to the `present value' of the income you expect from "
14312 "these copyrights. Which for us means over $1,000,000.</quote>"
14316 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14317 #: freeculture.xml:10733
14319 "You quickly get the point—you as the member of the board and, I trust, "
14320 "you the reader. Each time copyrights are about to expire, every beneficiary "
14321 "in the position of the Robert Frost estate faces the same choice: If they "
14322 "can contribute to get a law passed to extend copyrights, they will benefit "
14323 "greatly from that extension. And so each time copyrights are about to "
14324 "expire, there is a massive amount of lobbying to get the copyright term "
14328 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14329 #: freeculture.xml:10744
14331 "Thus a congressional perpetual motion machine: So long as legislation can be "
14332 "bought (albeit indirectly), there will be all the incentive in the world to "
14333 "buy further extensions of copyright."
14337 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14338 #: freeculture.xml:10756
14340 "Associated Press, <quote>Disney Lobbying for Copyright Extension No Mickey "
14341 "Mouse Effort; Congress OKs Bill Granting Creators 20 More Years,</quote> "
14342 "<citetitle>Chicago Tribune</citetitle>, 17 October 1998, 22."
14346 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14347 #: freeculture.xml:10763
14349 "See Nick Brown, <quote>Fair Use No More?: Copyright in the Information "
14350 "Age,</quote> available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
14355 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14356 #: freeculture.xml:10771
14358 "Alan K. Ota, <quote>Disney in Washington: The Mouse That Roars,</quote> "
14359 "<citetitle>Congressional Quarterly This Week</citetitle>, 8 August 1990, "
14360 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #50</ulink>."
14363 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14364 #: freeculture.xml:10749
14366 "In the lobbying that led to the passage of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term "
14367 "Extension Act, this <quote>theory</quote> about incentives was proved "
14368 "real. Ten of the thirteen original sponsors of the act in the House received "
14369 "the maximum contribution from Disney's political action committee; in the "
14370 "Senate, eight of the twelve sponsors received contributions.<placeholder "
14371 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The RIAA and the MPAA are estimated to have "
14372 "spent over $1.5 million lobbying in the 1998 election cycle. They paid out "
14373 "more than $200,000 in campaign contributions.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
14374 "id=\"1\"/> Disney is estimated to have contributed more than $800,000 to "
14375 "reelection campaigns in the cycle.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/>"
14378 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14379 #: freeculture.xml:10778
14381 "<emphasis role='strong'>Constitutional law</emphasis> is not oblivious to "
14382 "the obvious. Or at least, it need not be. So when I was considering Eldred's "
14383 "complaint, this reality about the never-ending incentives to increase the "
14384 "copyright term was central to my thinking. In my view, a pragmatic court "
14385 "committed to interpreting and applying the Constitution of our framers would "
14386 "see that if Congress has the power to extend existing terms, then there "
14387 "would be no effective constitutional requirement that terms be "
14388 "<quote>limited.</quote> If they could extend it once, they would extend it "
14389 "again and again and again."
14393 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14394 #: freeculture.xml:10790
14396 "It was also my judgment that <emphasis>this</emphasis> Supreme Court would "
14397 "not allow Congress to extend existing terms. As anyone close to the Supreme "
14398 "Court's work knows, this Court has increasingly restricted the power of "
14399 "Congress when it has viewed Congress's actions as exceeding the power "
14400 "granted to it by the Constitution. Among constitutional scholars, the most "
14401 "famous example of this trend was the Supreme Court's decision in 1995 to "
14402 "strike down a law that banned the possession of guns near schools."
14405 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14406 #: freeculture.xml:10803
14408 "Since 1937, the Supreme Court had interpreted Congress's granted powers very "
14409 "broadly; so, while the Constitution grants Congress the power to regulate "
14410 "only <quote>commerce among the several states</quote> (aka <quote>interstate "
14411 "commerce</quote>), the Supreme Court had interpreted that power to include "
14412 "the power to regulate any activity that merely affected interstate commerce."
14415 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14416 #: freeculture.xml:10813
14418 "As the economy grew, this standard increasingly meant that there was no "
14419 "limit to Congress's power to regulate, since just about every activity, when "
14420 "considered on a national scale, affects interstate commerce. A Constitution "
14421 "designed to limit Congress's power was instead interpreted to impose no "
14425 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
14426 #: freeculture.xml:10819 freeculture.xml:11606
14427 msgid "Rehnquist, William H."
14430 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14431 #: freeculture.xml:10821
14433 "The Supreme Court, under Chief Justice Rehnquist's command, changed that in "
14434 "<citetitle>United States</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle>. The "
14435 "government had argued that possessing guns near schools affected interstate "
14436 "commerce. Guns near schools increase crime, crime lowers property values, "
14437 "and so on. In the oral argument, the Chief Justice asked the government "
14438 "whether there was any activity that would not affect interstate commerce "
14439 "under the reasoning the government advanced. The government said there was "
14440 "not; if Congress says an activity affects interstate commerce, then that "
14441 "activity affects interstate commerce. The Supreme Court, the government "
14442 "said, was not in the position to second-guess Congress."
14446 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14447 #: freeculture.xml:10836
14449 "<citetitle>United States</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle>, 514 "
14450 "U.S. 549, 564 (1995)."
14454 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14455 #: freeculture.xml:10843
14457 "<citetitle>United States</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Morrison</citetitle>, 529 "
14461 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14462 #: freeculture.xml:10834
14464 "<quote>We pause to consider the implications of the government's "
14465 "arguments,</quote> the Chief Justice wrote.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
14466 "id=\"0\"/> If anything Congress says is interstate commerce must therefore "
14467 "be considered interstate commerce, then there would be no limit to "
14468 "Congress's power. The decision in <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> was "
14469 "reaffirmed five years later in <citetitle>United States</citetitle> "
14470 "v. <citetitle>Morrison</citetitle>.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
14474 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14475 #: freeculture.xml:10850
14477 "If it is a principle about enumerated powers, then the principle carries "
14478 "from one enumerated power to another. The animating point in the context of "
14479 "the Commerce Clause was that the interpretation offered by the government "
14480 "would allow the government unending power to regulate commerce—the "
14481 "limitation to interstate commerce notwithstanding. The same point is true in "
14482 "the context of the Copyright Clause. Here, too, the government's "
14483 "interpretation would allow the government unending power to regulate "
14484 "copyrights—the limitation to <quote>limited times</quote> "
14489 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14490 #: freeculture.xml:10847
14492 "If a principle were at work here, then it should apply to the Progress "
14493 "Clause as much as the Commerce Clause.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
14494 "id=\"0\"/> And if it is applied to the Progress Clause, the principle should "
14495 "yield the conclusion that Congress can't extend an existing term. If "
14496 "Congress could extend an existing term, then there would be no "
14497 "<quote>stopping point</quote> to Congress's power over terms, though the "
14498 "Constitution expressly states that there is such a limit. Thus, the same "
14499 "principle applied to the power to grant copyrights should entail that "
14500 "Congress is not allowed to extend the term of existing copyrights."
14503 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14504 #: freeculture.xml:10871
14506 "<emphasis>If</emphasis>, that is, the principle announced in "
14507 "<citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> stood for a principle. Many believed the "
14508 "decision in <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> stood for politics—a "
14509 "conservative Supreme Court, which believed in states' rights, using its "
14510 "power over Congress to advance its own personal political preferences. But I "
14511 "rejected that view of the Supreme Court's decision. Indeed, shortly after "
14512 "the decision, I wrote an article demonstrating the <quote>fidelity</quote> "
14513 "in such an interpretation of the Constitution. The idea that the Supreme "
14514 "Court decides cases based upon its politics struck me as extraordinarily "
14515 "boring. I was not going to devote my life to teaching constitutional law if "
14516 "these nine Justices were going to be petty politicians."
14519 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14520 #: freeculture.xml:10884
14522 "<emphasis role='strong'>Now let's pause</emphasis> for a moment to make sure "
14523 "we understand what the argument in <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> was not "
14524 "about. By insisting on the Constitution's limits to copyright, obviously "
14525 "Eldred was not endorsing piracy. Indeed, in an obvious sense, he was "
14526 "fighting a kind of piracy—piracy of the public domain. When Robert "
14527 "Frost wrote his work and when Walt Disney created Mickey Mouse, the maximum "
14528 "copyright term was just fifty-six years. Because of interim changes, Frost "
14529 "and Disney had already enjoyed a seventy-five-year monopoly for their "
14530 "work. They had gotten the benefit of the bargain that the Constitution "
14531 "envisions: In exchange for a monopoly protected for fifty-six years, they "
14532 "created new work. But now these entities were using their "
14533 "power—expressed through the power of lobbyists' money—to get "
14534 "another twenty-year dollop of monopoly. That twenty-year dollop would be "
14535 "taken from the public domain. Eric Eldred was fighting a piracy that affects "
14540 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14541 #: freeculture.xml:10908
14543 "Brief of the Nashville Songwriters Association, "
14544 "<citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, 537 U.S. "
14545 "186 (2003) (No. 01-618), n.10, available at <ulink "
14546 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #51</ulink>."
14549 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
14550 #: freeculture.xml:10916
14551 msgid "Nashville Songwriters Association"
14554 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14555 #: freeculture.xml:10902
14557 "Some people view the public domain with contempt. In their brief before the "
14558 "Supreme Court, the Nashville Songwriters Association wrote that the public "
14559 "domain is nothing more than <quote>legal piracy.</quote><placeholder "
14560 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> But it is not piracy when the law allows it; "
14561 "and in our constitutional system, our law requires it. Some may not like the "
14562 "Constitution's requirements, but that doesn't make the Constitution a "
14563 "pirate's charter. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
14566 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14567 #: freeculture.xml:10919
14569 "As we've seen, our constitutional system requires limits on copyright as a "
14570 "way to assure that copyright holders do not too heavily influence the "
14571 "development and distribution of our culture. Yet, as Eric Eldred discovered, "
14572 "we have set up a system that assures that copyright terms will be repeatedly "
14573 "extended, and extended, and extended. We have created the perfect storm for "
14574 "the public domain. Copyrights have not expired, and will not expire, so long "
14575 "as Congress is free to be bought to extend them again."
14578 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14579 #: freeculture.xml:10931
14581 "<emphasis role='strong'>It is valuable</emphasis> copyrights that are "
14582 "responsible for terms being extended. Mickey Mouse and <quote>Rhapsody in "
14583 "Blue.</quote> These works are too valuable for copyright owners to "
14584 "ignore. But the real harm to our society from copyright extensions is not "
14585 "that Mickey Mouse remains Disney's. Forget Mickey Mouse. Forget Robert "
14586 "Frost. Forget all the works from the 1920s and 1930s that have continuing "
14587 "commercial value. The real harm of term extension comes not from these "
14588 "famous works. The real harm is to the works that are not famous, not "
14589 "commercially exploited, and no longer available as a result."
14593 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14594 #: freeculture.xml:10949
14596 "The figure of 2 percent is an extrapolation from the study by the "
14597 "Congressional Research Service, in light of the estimated renewal "
14598 "ranges. See Brief of Petitioners, <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
14599 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, 7, available at <ulink "
14600 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #52</ulink>."
14603 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14604 #: freeculture.xml:10943
14606 "If you look at the work created in the first twenty years (1923 to 1942) "
14607 "affected by the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, 2 percent of that "
14608 "work has any continuing commercial value. It was the copyright holders for "
14609 "that 2 percent who pushed the CTEA through. But the law and its effect were "
14610 "not limited to that 2 percent. The law extended the terms of copyright "
14611 "generally.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
14615 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14616 #: freeculture.xml:10958
14618 "Think practically about the consequence of this extension—practically, "
14619 "as a businessperson, and not as a lawyer eager for more legal work. In 1930, "
14620 "10,047 books were published. In 2000, 174 of those books were still in "
14621 "print. Let's say you were Brewster Kahle, and you wanted to make available "
14622 "to the world in your iArchive project the remaining 9,873. What would you "
14626 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14627 #: freeculture.xml:10971
14629 "Well, first, you'd have to determine which of the 9,873 books were still "
14630 "under copyright. That requires going to a library (these data are not "
14631 "on-line) and paging through tomes of books, cross-checking the titles and "
14632 "authors of the 9,873 books with the copyright registration and renewal "
14633 "records for works published in 1930. That will produce a list of books still "
14637 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14638 #: freeculture.xml:10979
14640 "Then for the books still under copyright, you would need to locate the "
14641 "current copyright owners. How would you do that?"
14644 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14645 #: freeculture.xml:10983
14647 "Most people think that there must be a list of these copyright owners "
14648 "somewhere. Practical people think this way. How could there be thousands and "
14649 "thousands of government monopolies without there being at least a list?"
14652 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14653 #: freeculture.xml:10990
14655 "But there is no list. There may be a name from 1930, and then in 1959, of "
14656 "the person who registered the copyright. But just think practically about "
14657 "how impossibly difficult it would be to track down thousands of such "
14658 "records—especially since the person who registered is not necessarily "
14659 "the current owner. And we're just talking about 1930!"
14662 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14663 #: freeculture.xml:10999
14665 "<quote>But there isn't a list of who owns property generally,</quote> the "
14666 "apologists for the system respond. <quote>Why should there be a list of "
14667 "copyright owners?</quote>"
14670 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14671 #: freeculture.xml:11004
14673 "Well, actually, if you think about it, there <emphasis>are</emphasis> plenty "
14674 "of lists of who owns what property. Think about deeds on houses, or titles "
14675 "to cars. And where there isn't a list, the code of real space is pretty "
14676 "good at suggesting who the owner of a bit of property is. (A swing set in "
14677 "your backyard is probably yours.) So formally or informally, we have a "
14678 "pretty good way to know who owns what tangible property."
14682 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14683 #: freeculture.xml:11013
14685 "So: You walk down a street and see a house. You can know who owns the house "
14686 "by looking it up in the courthouse registry. If you see a car, there is "
14687 "ordinarily a license plate that will link the owner to the car. If you see a "
14688 "bunch of children's toys sitting on the front lawn of a house, it's fairly "
14689 "easy to determine who owns the toys. And if you happen to see a baseball "
14690 "lying in a gutter on the side of the road, look around for a second for some "
14691 "kids playing ball. If you don't see any kids, then okay: Here's a bit of "
14692 "property whose owner we can't easily determine. It is the exception that "
14693 "proves the rule: that we ordinarily know quite well who owns what property."
14696 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14697 #: freeculture.xml:11028
14699 "Compare this story to intangible property. You go into a library. The "
14700 "library owns the books. But who owns the copyrights? As I've already "
14701 "described, there's no list of copyright owners. There are authors' names, of "
14702 "course, but their copyrights could have been assigned, or passed down in an "
14703 "estate like Grandma's old jewelry. To know who owns what, you would have to "
14704 "hire a private detective. The bottom line: The owner cannot easily be "
14705 "located. And in a regime like ours, in which it is a felony to use such "
14706 "property without the property owner's permission, the property isn't going "
14710 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14711 #: freeculture.xml:11040
14713 "The consequence with respect to old books is that they won't be digitized, "
14714 "and hence will simply rot away on shelves. But the consequence for other "
14715 "creative works is much more dire."
14718 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
14719 #: freeculture.xml:11046
14720 msgid "Agee, Michael"
14723 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
14724 #: freeculture.xml:11048 freeculture.xml:11486
14725 msgid "Hal Roach Studios"
14728 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
14729 #: freeculture.xml:11049
14730 msgid "Laurel and Hardy Films"
14734 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14735 #: freeculture.xml:11062
14737 "See David G. Savage, <quote>High Court Scene of Showdown on Copyright "
14738 "Law,</quote> <citetitle>Los Angeles Times</citetitle>, 6 October 2002; David "
14739 "Streitfeld, <quote>Classic Movies, Songs, Books at Stake; Supreme Court "
14740 "Hears Arguments Today on Striking Down Copyright Extension,</quote> "
14741 "<citetitle>Orlando Sentinel Tribune</citetitle>, 9 October 2002."
14744 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
14745 #: freeculture.xml:11068
14746 msgid "Lucky Dog, The"
14749 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14750 #: freeculture.xml:11051
14752 "Consider the story of Michael Agee, chairman of Hal Roach Studios, which "
14753 "owns the copyrights for the Laurel and Hardy films. Agee is a direct "
14754 "beneficiary of the Bono Act. The Laurel and Hardy films were made between "
14755 "1921 and 1951. Only one of these films, <citetitle>The Lucky "
14756 "Dog</citetitle>, is currently out of copyright. But for the CTEA, films made "
14757 "after 1923 would have begun entering the public domain. Because Agee "
14758 "controls the exclusive rights for these popular films, he makes a great deal "
14759 "of money. According to one estimate, <quote>Roach has sold about 60,000 "
14760 "videocassettes and 50,000 DVDs of the duo's silent "
14761 "films.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
14762 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
14765 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14766 #: freeculture.xml:11071
14768 "Yet Agee opposed the CTEA. His reasons demonstrate a rare virtue in this "
14769 "culture: selflessness. He argued in a brief before the Supreme Court that "
14770 "the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act will, if left standing, destroy "
14771 "a whole generation of American film."
14775 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14776 #: freeculture.xml:11077
14778 "His argument is straightforward. A tiny fraction of this work has any "
14779 "continuing commercial value. The rest—to the extent it survives at "
14780 "all—sits in vaults gathering dust. It may be that some of this work "
14781 "not now commercially valuable will be deemed to be valuable by the owners of "
14782 "the vaults. For this to occur, however, the commercial benefit from the work "
14783 "must exceed the costs of making the work available for distribution."
14787 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14788 #: freeculture.xml:11095
14790 "Brief of Hal Roach Studios and Michael Agee as Amicus Curiae Supporting the "
14791 "Petitoners, <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
14792 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, 537 U.S. 186 (2003) (No. 01- 618), "
14793 "12. See also Brief of Amicus Curiae filed on behalf of Petitioners by the "
14794 "Internet Archive, <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
14795 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, available at <ulink "
14796 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #53</ulink>."
14799 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14800 #: freeculture.xml:11088
14802 "We can't know the benefits, but we do know a lot about the costs. For most "
14803 "of the history of film, the costs of restoring film were very high; digital "
14804 "technology has lowered these costs substantially. While it cost more than "
14805 "$10,000 to restore a ninety-minute black-and-white film in 1993, it can now "
14806 "cost as little as $100 to digitize one hour of mm film.<placeholder "
14807 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
14810 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14811 #: freeculture.xml:11105
14813 "Restoration technology is not the only cost, nor the most important. "
14814 "Lawyers, too, are a cost, and increasingly, a very important one. In "
14815 "addition to preserving the film, a distributor needs to secure the rights. "
14816 "And to secure the rights for a film that is under copyright, you need to "
14817 "locate the copyright owner."
14820 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14821 #: freeculture.xml:11113
14823 "Or more accurately, <emphasis>owners</emphasis>. As we've seen, there isn't "
14824 "only a single copyright associated with a film; there are many. There isn't "
14825 "a single person whom you can contact about those copyrights; there are as "
14826 "many as can hold the rights, which turns out to be an extremely large "
14827 "number. Thus the costs of clearing the rights to these films is "
14828 "exceptionally high."
14831 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14832 #: freeculture.xml:11121
14834 "<quote>But can't you just restore the film, distribute it, and then pay the "
14835 "copyright owner when she shows up?</quote> Sure, if you want to commit a "
14836 "felony. And even if you're not worried about committing a felony, when she "
14837 "does show up, she'll have the right to sue you for all the profits you have "
14838 "made. So, if you're successful, you can be fairly confident you'll be "
14839 "getting a call from someone's lawyer. And if you're not successful, you "
14840 "won't make enough to cover the costs of your own lawyer. Either way, you "
14841 "have to talk to a lawyer. And as is too often the case, saying you have to "
14842 "talk to a lawyer is the same as saying you won't make any money."
14846 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14847 #: freeculture.xml:11132
14849 "For some films, the benefit of releasing the film may well exceed these "
14850 "costs. But for the vast majority of them, there is no way the benefit would "
14851 "outweigh the legal costs. Thus, for the vast majority of old films, Agee "
14852 "argued, the film will not be restored and distributed until the copyright "
14856 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14857 #: freeculture.xml:11143
14859 "But by the time the copyright for these films expires, the film will have "
14860 "expired. These films were produced on nitrate-based stock, and nitrate stock "
14861 "dissolves over time. They will be gone, and the metal canisters in which "
14862 "they are now stored will be filled with nothing more than dust."
14865 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14866 #: freeculture.xml:11151
14868 "<emphasis role='strong'>Of all the</emphasis> creative work produced by "
14869 "humans anywhere, a tiny fraction has continuing commercial value. For that "
14870 "tiny fraction, the copyright is a crucially important legal device. For that "
14871 "tiny fraction, the copyright creates incentives to produce and distribute "
14872 "the creative work. For that tiny fraction, the copyright acts as an "
14873 "<quote>engine of free expression.</quote>"
14876 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14877 #: freeculture.xml:11159
14879 "But even for that tiny fraction, the actual time during which the creative "
14880 "work has a commercial life is extremely short. As I've indicated, most books "
14881 "go out of print within one year. The same is true of music and "
14882 "film. Commercial culture is sharklike. It must keep moving. And when a "
14883 "creative work falls out of favor with the commercial distributors, the "
14884 "commercial life ends."
14887 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14888 #: freeculture.xml:11169
14890 "Yet that doesn't mean the life of the creative work ends. We don't keep "
14891 "libraries of books in order to compete with Barnes & Noble, and we don't "
14892 "have archives of films because we expect people to choose between spending "
14893 "Friday night watching new movies and spending Friday night watching a 1930 "
14894 "news documentary. The noncommercial life of culture is important and "
14895 "valuable—for entertainment but also, and more importantly, for "
14896 "knowledge. To understand who we are, and where we came from, and how we have "
14897 "made the mistakes that we have, we need to have access to this history."
14901 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14902 #: freeculture.xml:11182
14904 "Copyrights in this context do not drive an engine of free expression. In "
14905 "this context, there is no need for an exclusive right. Copyrights in this "
14906 "context do no good."
14909 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14910 #: freeculture.xml:11189
14912 "Yet, for most of our history, they also did little harm. For most of our "
14913 "history, when a work ended its commercial life, there was no "
14914 "<emphasis>copyright-related use</emphasis> that would be inhibited by an "
14915 "exclusive right. When a book went out of print, you could not buy it from a "
14916 "publisher. But you could still buy it from a used book store, and when a "
14917 "used book store sells it, in America, at least, there is no need to pay the "
14918 "copyright owner anything. Thus, the ordinary use of a book after its "
14919 "commercial life ended was a use that was independent of copyright law."
14922 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14923 #: freeculture.xml:11200
14925 "The same was effectively true of film. Because the costs of restoring a "
14926 "film—the real economic costs, not the lawyer costs—were so high, "
14927 "it was never at all feasible to preserve or restore film. Like the remains "
14928 "of a great dinner, when it's over, it's over. Once a film passed out of its "
14929 "commercial life, it may have been archived for a bit, but that was the end "
14930 "of its life so long as the market didn't have more to offer."
14933 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14934 #: freeculture.xml:11209
14936 "In other words, though copyright has been relatively short for most of our "
14937 "history, long copyrights wouldn't have mattered for the works that lost "
14938 "their commercial value. Long copyrights for these works would not have "
14939 "interfered with anything."
14942 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14943 #: freeculture.xml:11215
14944 msgid "But this situation has now changed."
14947 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14948 #: freeculture.xml:11221
14950 "One crucially important consequence of the emergence of digital technologies "
14951 "is to enable the archive that Brewster Kahle dreams of. Digital "
14952 "technologies now make it possible to preserve and give access to all sorts "
14953 "of knowledge. Once a book goes out of print, we can now imagine digitizing "
14954 "it and making it available to everyone, forever. Once a film goes out of "
14955 "distribution, we could digitize it and make it available to everyone, "
14956 "forever. Digital technologies give new life to copyrighted material after it "
14957 "passes out of its commercial life. It is now possible to preserve and assure "
14958 "universal access to this knowledge and culture, whereas before it was not."
14962 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14963 #: freeculture.xml:11234
14965 "And now copyright law does get in the way. Every step of producing this "
14966 "digital archive of our culture infringes on the exclusive right of "
14967 "copyright. To digitize a book is to copy it. To do that requires permission "
14968 "of the copyright owner. The same with music, film, or any other aspect of "
14969 "our culture protected by copyright. The effort to make these things "
14970 "available to history, or to researchers, or to those who just want to "
14971 "explore, is now inhibited by a set of rules that were written for a "
14972 "radically different context."
14975 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14976 #: freeculture.xml:11244
14978 "Here is the core of the harm that comes from extending terms: Now that "
14979 "technology enables us to rebuild the library of Alexandria, the law gets in "
14980 "the way. And it doesn't get in the way for any useful "
14981 "<emphasis>copyright</emphasis> purpose, for the purpose of copyright is to "
14982 "enable the commercial market that spreads culture. No, we are talking about "
14983 "culture after it has lived its commercial life. In this context, copyright "
14984 "is serving no purpose <emphasis>at all</emphasis> related to the spread of "
14985 "knowledge. In this context, copyright is not an engine of free "
14986 "expression. Copyright is a brake."
14989 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14990 #: freeculture.xml:11255
14992 "You may well ask, <quote>But if digital technologies lower the costs for "
14993 "Brewster Kahle, then they will lower the costs for Random House, too. So "
14994 "won't Random House do as well as Brewster Kahle in spreading culture "
14998 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14999 #: freeculture.xml:11261
15001 "Maybe. Someday. But there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that "
15002 "publishers would be as complete as libraries. If Barnes & Noble offered "
15003 "to lend books from its stores for a low price, would that eliminate the need "
15004 "for libraries? Only if you think that the only role of a library is to serve "
15005 "what <quote>the market</quote> would demand. But if you think the role of a "
15006 "library is bigger than this—if you think its role is to archive "
15007 "culture, whether there's a demand for any particular bit of that culture or "
15008 "not—then we can't count on the commercial market to do our library "
15013 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
15014 #: freeculture.xml:11285
15016 "Jason Schultz, <quote>The Myth of the 1976 Copyright `Chaos' Theory,</quote> "
15017 "20 December 2002, available at <ulink "
15018 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #54</ulink>."
15021 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15022 #: freeculture.xml:11273
15024 "I would be the first to agree that it should do as much as it can: We should "
15025 "rely upon the market as much as possible to spread and enable culture. My "
15026 "message is absolutely not antimarket. But where we see the market is not "
15027 "doing the job, then we should allow nonmarket forces the freedom to fill the "
15028 "gaps. As one researcher calculated for American culture, 94 percent of the "
15029 "films, books, and music produced between and 1946 is not commercially "
15030 "available. However much you love the commercial market, if access is a "
15031 "value, then 6 percent is a failure to provide that value.<placeholder "
15032 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
15035 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15036 #: freeculture.xml:11292
15038 "<emphasis role='strong'>In January 1999</emphasis>, we filed a lawsuit on "
15039 "Eric Eldred's behalf in federal district court in Washington, D.C., asking "
15040 "the court to declare the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act "
15041 "unconstitutional. The two central claims that we made were (1) that "
15042 "extending existing terms violated the Constitution's <quote>limited "
15043 "Times</quote> requirement, and (2) that extending terms by another twenty "
15044 "years violated the First Amendment."
15047 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15048 #: freeculture.xml:11301
15050 "The district court dismissed our claims without even hearing an argument. A "
15051 "panel of the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit also dismissed our "
15052 "claims, though after hearing an extensive argument. But that decision at "
15053 "least had a dissent, by one of the most conservative judges on that "
15054 "court. That dissent gave our claims life."
15057 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15058 #: freeculture.xml:11308
15060 "Judge David Sentelle said the CTEA violated the requirement that copyrights "
15061 "be for <quote>limited Times</quote> only. His argument was as elegant as it "
15062 "was simple: If Congress can extend existing terms, then there is no "
15063 "<quote>stopping point</quote> to Congress's power under the Copyright "
15064 "Clause. The power to extend existing terms means Congress is not required to "
15065 "grant terms that are <quote>limited.</quote> Thus, Judge Sentelle argued, "
15066 "the court had to interpret the term <quote>limited Times</quote> to give it "
15067 "meaning. And the best interpretation, Judge Sentelle argued, would be to "
15068 "deny Congress the power to extend existing terms."
15071 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15072 #: freeculture.xml:11319
15074 "We asked the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit as a whole to hear the "
15075 "case. Cases are ordinarily heard in panels of three, except for important "
15076 "cases or cases that raise issues specific to the circuit as a whole, where "
15077 "the court will sit <quote>en banc</quote> to hear the case."
15080 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15081 #: freeculture.xml:11324
15082 msgid "Tatel, David"
15086 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15087 #: freeculture.xml:11326
15089 "The Court of Appeals rejected our request to hear the case en banc. This "
15090 "time, Judge Sentelle was joined by the most liberal member of the "
15091 "D.C. Circuit, Judge David Tatel. Both the most conservative and the most "
15092 "liberal judges in the D.C. Circuit believed Congress had overstepped its "
15096 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15097 #: freeculture.xml:11335
15099 "It was here that most expected Eldred v. Ashcroft would die, for the Supreme "
15100 "Court rarely reviews any decision by a court of appeals. (It hears about one "
15101 "hundred cases a year, out of more than five thousand appeals.) And it "
15102 "practically never reviews a decision that upholds a statute when no other "
15103 "court has yet reviewed the statute."
15106 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15107 #: freeculture.xml:11342
15109 "But in February 2002, the Supreme Court surprised the world by granting our "
15110 "petition to review the D.C. Circuit opinion. Argument was set for October of "
15111 "2002. The summer would be spent writing briefs and preparing for argument."
15114 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15115 #: freeculture.xml:11348
15117 "<emphasis role='strong'>It is over</emphasis> a year later as I write these "
15118 "words. It is still astonishingly hard. If you know anything at all about "
15119 "this story, you know that we lost the appeal. And if you know something more "
15120 "than just the minimum, you probably think there was no way this case could "
15121 "have been won. After our defeat, I received literally thousands of missives "
15122 "by well-wishers and supporters, thanking me for my work on behalf of this "
15123 "noble but doomed cause. And none from this pile was more significant to me "
15124 "than the e-mail from my client, Eric Eldred."
15127 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15128 #: freeculture.xml:11359
15130 "But my client and these friends were wrong. This case could have been "
15131 "won. It should have been won. And no matter how hard I try to retell this "
15132 "story to myself, I can never escape believing that my own mistake lost it."
15135 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15136 #: freeculture.xml:11364 freeculture.xml:11378
15137 msgid "Steward, Geoffrey"
15141 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15142 #: freeculture.xml:11366
15144 "<emphasis role='strong'>The mistake</emphasis> was made early, though it "
15145 "became obvious only at the very end. Our case had been supported from the "
15146 "very beginning by an extraordinary lawyer, Geoffrey Stewart, and by the law "
15147 "firm he had moved to, Jones, Day, Reavis and Pogue. Jones Day took a great "
15148 "deal of heat from its copyright-protectionist clients for supporting "
15149 "us. They ignored this pressure (something that few law firms today would "
15150 "ever do), and throughout the case, they gave it everything they could."
15153 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15154 #: freeculture.xml:11376 freeculture.xml:11737 freeculture.xml:11753 freeculture.xml:11850 freeculture.xml:12070 freeculture.xml:12101 freeculture.xml:12199
15158 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15159 #: freeculture.xml:11377
15160 msgid "Bromberg, Dan"
15163 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15164 #: freeculture.xml:11380
15166 "There were three key lawyers on the case from Jones Day. Geoff Stewart was "
15167 "the first, but then Dan Bromberg and Don Ayer became quite "
15168 "involved. Bromberg and Ayer in particular had a common view about how this "
15169 "case would be won: We would only win, they repeatedly told me, if we could "
15170 "make the issue seem <quote>important</quote> to the Supreme Court. It had to "
15171 "seem as if dramatic harm were being done to free speech and free culture; "
15172 "otherwise, they would never vote against <quote>the most powerful media "
15173 "companies in the world.</quote>"
15176 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15177 #: freeculture.xml:11390
15179 "I hate this view of the law. Of course I thought the Sonny Bono Act was a "
15180 "dramatic harm to free speech and free culture. Of course I still think it "
15181 "is. But the idea that the Supreme Court decides the law based on how "
15182 "important they believe the issues are is just wrong. It might be "
15183 "<quote>right</quote> as in <quote>true,</quote> I thought, but it is "
15184 "<quote>wrong</quote> as in <quote>it just shouldn't be that way.</quote> As "
15185 "I believed that any faithful interpretation of what the framers of our "
15186 "Constitution did would yield the conclusion that the CTEA was "
15187 "unconstitutional, and as I believed that any faithful interpretation of what "
15188 "the First Amendment means would yield the conclusion that the power to "
15189 "extend existing copyright terms is unconstitutional, I was not persuaded "
15190 "that we had to sell our case like soap. Just as a law that bans the "
15191 "swastika is unconstitutional not because the Court likes Nazis but because "
15192 "such a law would violate the Constitution, so too, in my view, would the "
15193 "Court decide whether Congress's law was constitutional based on the "
15194 "Constitution, not based on whether they liked the values that the framers "
15195 "put in the Constitution."
15198 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15199 #: freeculture.xml:11411
15201 "In any case, I thought, the Court must already see the danger and the harm "
15202 "caused by this sort of law. Why else would they grant review? There was no "
15203 "reason to hear the case in the Supreme Court if they weren't convinced that "
15204 "this regulation was harmful. So in my view, we didn't need to persuade them "
15205 "that this law was bad, we needed to show why it was unconstitutional."
15209 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15210 #: freeculture.xml:11419
15212 "There was one way, however, in which I felt politics would matter and in "
15213 "which I thought a response was appropriate. I was convinced that the Court "
15214 "would not hear our arguments if it thought these were just the arguments of "
15215 "a group of lefty loons. This Supreme Court was not about to launch into a "
15216 "new field of judicial review if it seemed that this field of review was "
15217 "simply the preference of a small political minority. Although my focus in "
15218 "the case was not to demonstrate how bad the Sonny Bono Act was but to "
15219 "demonstrate that it was unconstitutional, my hope was to make this argument "
15220 "against a background of briefs that covered the full range of political "
15221 "views. To show that this claim against the CTEA was grounded in "
15222 "<emphasis>law</emphasis> and not politics, then, we tried to gather the "
15223 "widest range of credible critics—credible not because they were rich "
15224 "and famous, but because they, in the aggregate, demonstrated that this law "
15225 "was unconstitutional regardless of one's politics."
15228 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
15229 #: freeculture.xml:11450 freeculture.xml:11476
15230 msgid "Eagle Forum"
15233 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
15234 #: freeculture.xml:11451
15235 msgid "Schlafly, Phyllis"
15238 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15239 #: freeculture.xml:11438
15241 "The first step happened all by itself. Phyllis Schlafly's organization, "
15242 "Eagle Forum, had been an opponent of the CTEA from the very beginning. "
15243 "Mrs. Schlafly viewed the CTEA as a sellout by Congress. In November 1998, "
15244 "she wrote a stinging editorial attacking the Republican Congress for "
15245 "allowing the law to pass. As she wrote, <quote>Do you sometimes wonder why "
15246 "bills that create a financial windfall to narrow special interests slide "
15247 "easily through the intricate legislative process, while bills that benefit "
15248 "the general public seem to get bogged down?</quote> The answer, as the "
15249 "editorial documented, was the power of money. Schlafly enumerated Disney's "
15250 "contributions to the key players on the committees. It was money, not "
15251 "justice, that gave Mickey Mouse twenty more years in Disney's control, "
15252 "Schlafly argued. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
15253 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
15256 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15257 #: freeculture.xml:11454
15259 "In the Court of Appeals, Eagle Forum was eager to file a brief supporting "
15260 "our position. Their brief made the argument that became the core claim in "
15261 "the Supreme Court: If Congress can extend the term of existing copyrights, "
15262 "there is no limit to Congress's power to set terms. That strong "
15263 "conservative argument persuaded a strong conservative judge, Judge Sentelle."
15266 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15267 #: freeculture.xml:11462
15269 "In the Supreme Court, the briefs on our side were about as diverse as it "
15270 "gets. They included an extraordinary historical brief by the Free Software "
15271 "Foundation (home of the GNU project that made GNU/ Linux possible). They "
15272 "included a powerful brief about the costs of uncertainty by Intel. There "
15273 "were two law professors' briefs, one by copyright scholars and one by First "
15274 "Amendment scholars. There was an exhaustive and uncontroverted brief by the "
15275 "world's experts in the history of the Progress Clause. And of course, there "
15276 "was a new brief by Eagle Forum, repeating and strengthening its arguments. "
15277 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
15278 "id=\"1\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder "
15279 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/>"
15282 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
15283 #: freeculture.xml:11483
15284 msgid "American Association of Law Libraries"
15287 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
15288 #: freeculture.xml:11484
15289 msgid "National Writers Union"
15292 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15293 #: freeculture.xml:11479
15295 "Those briefs framed a legal argument. Then to support the legal argument, "
15296 "there were a number of powerful briefs by libraries and archives, including "
15297 "the Internet Archive, the American Association of Law Libraries, and the "
15298 "National Writers Union. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> "
15299 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
15302 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15303 #: freeculture.xml:11488
15305 "But two briefs captured the policy argument best. One made the argument I've "
15306 "already described: A brief by Hal Roach Studios argued that unless the law "
15307 "was struck, a whole generation of American film would disappear. The other "
15308 "made the economic argument absolutely clear."
15311 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15312 #: freeculture.xml:11494
15313 msgid "Akerlof, George"
15316 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15317 #: freeculture.xml:11495
15318 msgid "Arrow, Kenneth"
15321 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15322 #: freeculture.xml:11496
15323 msgid "Buchanan, James"
15326 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15327 #: freeculture.xml:11497
15328 msgid "Coase, Ronald"
15331 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15332 #: freeculture.xml:11498
15333 msgid "Friedman, Milton"
15336 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15337 #: freeculture.xml:11500
15339 "This economists' brief was signed by seventeen economists, including five "
15340 "Nobel Prize winners, including Ronald Coase, James Buchanan, Milton "
15341 "Friedman, Kenneth Arrow, and George Akerlof. The economists, as the list of "
15342 "Nobel winners demonstrates, spanned the political spectrum. Their "
15343 "conclusions were powerful: There was no plausible claim that extending the "
15344 "terms of existing copyrights would do anything to increase incentives to "
15345 "create. Such extensions were nothing more than "
15346 "<quote>rent-seeking</quote>—the fancy term economists use to describe "
15347 "special-interest legislation gone wild."
15350 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
15351 #: freeculture.xml:11523 freeculture.xml:11539 freeculture.xml:11744 freeculture.xml:12106
15352 msgid "Fried, Charles"
15355 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
15356 #: freeculture.xml:11524
15357 msgid "Morrison, Alan"
15360 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
15361 #: freeculture.xml:11525
15362 msgid "Public Citizen"
15365 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15366 #: freeculture.xml:11526 freeculture.xml:11738 freeculture.xml:12859
15367 msgid "Reagan, Ronald"
15370 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15371 #: freeculture.xml:11511
15373 "The same effort at balance was reflected in the legal team we gathered to "
15374 "write our briefs in the case. The Jones Day lawyers had been with us from "
15375 "the start. But when the case got to the Supreme Court, we added three "
15376 "lawyers to help us frame this argument to this Court: Alan Morrison, a "
15377 "lawyer from Public Citizen, a Washington group that had made constitutional "
15378 "history with a series of seminal victories in the Supreme Court defending "
15379 "individual rights; my colleague and dean, Kathleen Sullivan, who had argued "
15380 "many cases in the Court, and who had advised us early on about a First "
15381 "Amendment strategy; and finally, former solicitor general Charles Fried. "
15382 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
15383 "id=\"1\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder "
15384 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/>"
15387 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15388 #: freeculture.xml:11529
15390 "Fried was a special victory for our side. Every other former solicitor "
15391 "general was hired by the other side to defend Congress's power to give media "
15392 "companies the special favor of extended copyright terms. Fried was the only "
15393 "one who turned down that lucrative assignment to stand up for something he "
15394 "believed in. He had been Ronald Reagan's chief lawyer in the Supreme "
15395 "Court. He had helped craft the line of cases that limited Congress's power "
15396 "in the context of the Commerce Clause. And while he had argued many "
15397 "positions in the Supreme Court that I personally disagreed with, his joining "
15398 "the cause was a vote of confidence in our argument. <placeholder "
15399 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
15402 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15403 #: freeculture.xml:11542
15405 "The government, in defending the statute, had its collection of friends, as "
15406 "well. Significantly, however, none of these <quote>friends</quote> included "
15407 "historians or economists. The briefs on the other side of the case were "
15408 "written exclusively by major media companies, congressmen, and copyright "
15412 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15413 #: freeculture.xml:11549
15415 "The media companies were not surprising. They had the most to gain from the "
15416 "law. The congressmen were not surprising either—they were defending "
15417 "their power and, indirectly, the gravy train of contributions such power "
15418 "induced. And of course it was not surprising that the copyright holders "
15419 "would defend the idea that they should continue to have the right to control "
15420 "who did what with content they wanted to control."
15424 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
15425 #: freeculture.xml:11565
15427 "Brief of Amici Dr. Seuss Enterprise et al., <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
15428 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, 537 U.S. (2003) (No. 01-618), 19."
15432 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
15433 #: freeculture.xml:11573
15435 "Dinitia Smith, <quote>Immortal Words, Immortal Royalties? Even Mickey Mouse "
15436 "Joins the Fray,</quote> <citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 28 March "
15440 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
15441 #: freeculture.xml:11580
15442 msgid "Gershwin, George"
15445 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15446 #: freeculture.xml:11558
15448 "Dr. Seuss's representatives, for example, argued that it was better for the "
15449 "Dr. Seuss estate to control what happened to Dr. Seuss's work— better "
15450 "than allowing it to fall into the public domain—because if this "
15451 "creativity were in the public domain, then people could use it to "
15452 "<quote>glorify drugs or to create pornography.</quote><placeholder "
15453 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> That was also the motive of the Gershwin "
15454 "estate, which defended its <quote>protection</quote> of the work of George "
15455 "Gershwin. They refuse, for example, to license <citetitle>Porgy and "
15456 "Bess</citetitle> to anyone who refuses to use African Americans in the "
15457 "cast.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> That's their view of how this "
15458 "part of American culture should be controlled, and they wanted this law to "
15459 "help them effect that control. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/>"
15462 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15463 #: freeculture.xml:11583
15465 "This argument made clear a theme that is rarely noticed in this debate. "
15466 "When Congress decides to extend the term of existing copyrights, Congress is "
15467 "making a choice about which speakers it will favor. Famous and beloved "
15468 "copyright owners, such as the Gershwin estate and Dr. Seuss, come to "
15469 "Congress and say, <quote>Give us twenty years to control the speech about "
15470 "these icons of American culture. We'll do better with them than anyone "
15471 "else.</quote> Congress of course likes to reward the popular and famous by "
15472 "giving them what they want. But when Congress gives people an exclusive "
15473 "right to speak in a certain way, that's just what the First Amendment is "
15474 "traditionally meant to block."
15477 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15478 #: freeculture.xml:11595
15480 "We argued as much in a final brief. Not only would upholding the CTEA mean "
15481 "that there was no limit to the power of Congress to extend "
15482 "copyrights—extensions that would further concentrate the market; it "
15483 "would also mean that there was no limit to Congress's power to play "
15484 "favorites, through copyright, with who has the right to speak."
15487 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15488 #: freeculture.xml:11602
15490 "<emphasis role='strong'>Between February</emphasis> and October, there was "
15491 "little I did beyond preparing for this case. Early on, as I said, I set the "
15495 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15496 #: freeculture.xml:11607 freeculture.xml:11795
15497 msgid "O'Connor, Sandra Day"
15500 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15501 #: freeculture.xml:11609
15503 "The Supreme Court was divided into two important camps. One camp we called "
15504 "<quote>the Conservatives.</quote> The other we called <quote>the "
15505 "Rest.</quote> The Conservatives included Chief Justice Rehnquist, Justice "
15506 "O'Connor, Justice Scalia, Justice Kennedy, and Justice Thomas. These five "
15507 "had been the most consistent in limiting Congress's power. They were the "
15508 "five who had supported the <citetitle>Lopez/Morrison</citetitle> line of "
15509 "cases that said that an enumerated power had to be interpreted to assure "
15510 "that Congress's powers had limits."
15513 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15514 #: freeculture.xml:11618 freeculture.xml:11645 freeculture.xml:11997 freeculture.xml:12009
15515 msgid "Breyer, Stephen"
15518 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15519 #: freeculture.xml:11620 freeculture.xml:11961
15520 msgid "Ginsburg, Ruth Bader"
15524 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15525 #: freeculture.xml:11623
15527 "The Rest were the four Justices who had strongly opposed limits on "
15528 "Congress's power. These four—Justice Stevens, Justice Souter, Justice "
15529 "Ginsburg, and Justice Breyer—had repeatedly argued that the "
15530 "Constitution gives Congress broad discretion to decide how best to implement "
15531 "its powers. In case after case, these justices had argued that the Court's "
15532 "role should be one of deference. Though the votes of these four justices "
15533 "were the votes that I personally had most consistently agreed with, they "
15534 "were also the votes that we were least likely to get."
15537 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15538 #: freeculture.xml:11635
15540 "In particular, the least likely was Justice Ginsburg's. In addition to her "
15541 "general view about deference to Congress (except where issues of gender are "
15542 "involved), she had been particularly deferential in the context of "
15543 "intellectual property protections. She and her daughter (an excellent and "
15544 "well-known intellectual property scholar) were cut from the same "
15545 "intellectual property cloth. We expected she would agree with the writings "
15546 "of her daughter: that Congress had the power in this context to do as it "
15547 "wished, even if what Congress wished made little sense."
15550 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15551 #: freeculture.xml:11647
15553 "Close behind Justice Ginsburg were two justices whom we also viewed as "
15554 "unlikely allies, though possible surprises. Justice Souter strongly favored "
15555 "deference to Congress, as did Justice Breyer. But both were also very "
15556 "sensitive to free speech concerns. And as we strongly believed, there was a "
15557 "very important free speech argument against these retrospective extensions."
15560 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15561 #: freeculture.xml:11656
15563 "The only vote we could be confident about was that of Justice "
15564 "Stevens. History will record Justice Stevens as one of the greatest judges "
15565 "on this Court. His votes are consistently eclectic, which just means that no "
15566 "simple ideology explains where he will stand. But he had consistently argued "
15567 "for limits in the context of intellectual property generally. We were fairly "
15568 "confident he would recognize limits here."
15571 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15572 #: freeculture.xml:11664
15574 "This analysis of <quote>the Rest</quote> showed most clearly where our focus "
15575 "had to be: on the Conservatives. To win this case, we had to crack open "
15576 "these five and get at least a majority to go our way. Thus, the single "
15577 "overriding argument that animated our claim rested on the Conservatives' "
15578 "most important jurisprudential innovation—the argument that Judge "
15579 "Sentelle had relied upon in the Court of Appeals, that Congress's power must "
15580 "be interpreted so that its enumerated powers have limits."
15584 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15585 #: freeculture.xml:11674
15587 "This then was the core of our strategy—a strategy for which I am "
15588 "responsible. We would get the Court to see that just as with the "
15589 "<citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> case, under the government's argument here, "
15590 "Congress would always have unlimited power to extend existing terms. If "
15591 "anything was plain about Congress's power under the Progress Clause, it was "
15592 "that this power was supposed to be <quote>limited.</quote> Our aim would be "
15593 "to get the Court to reconcile <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> with "
15594 "<citetitle>Lopez</citetitle>: If Congress's power to regulate commerce was "
15595 "limited, then so, too, must Congress's power to regulate copyright be "
15599 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15600 #: freeculture.xml:11688
15602 "<emphasis role='strong'>The argument</emphasis> on the government's side "
15603 "came down to this: Congress has done it before. It should be allowed to do "
15604 "it again. The government claimed that from the very beginning, Congress has "
15605 "been extending the term of existing copyrights. So, the government argued, "
15606 "the Court should not now say that practice is unconstitutional."
15609 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15610 #: freeculture.xml:11696
15612 "There was some truth to the government's claim, but not much. We certainly "
15613 "agreed that Congress had extended existing terms in 1831 and in 1909. And of "
15614 "course, in 1962, Congress began extending existing terms "
15615 "regularly—eleven times in forty years."
15618 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15619 #: freeculture.xml:11703
15621 "But this <quote>consistency</quote> should be kept in perspective. Congress "
15622 "extended existing terms once in the first hundred years of the Republic. It "
15623 "then extended existing terms once again in the next fifty. Those rare "
15624 "extensions are in contrast to the now regular practice of extending existing "
15625 "terms. Whatever restraint Congress had had in the past, that restraint was "
15626 "now gone. Congress was now in a cycle of extensions; there was no reason to "
15627 "expect that cycle would end. This Court had not hesitated to intervene where "
15628 "Congress was in a similar cycle of extension. There was no reason it "
15629 "couldn't intervene here."
15633 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15634 #: freeculture.xml:11718
15636 "<emphasis role='strong'>Oral argument</emphasis> was scheduled for the first "
15637 "week in October. I arrived in D.C. two weeks before the argument. During "
15638 "those two weeks, I was repeatedly <quote>mooted</quote> by lawyers who had "
15639 "volunteered to help in the case. Such <quote>moots</quote> are basically "
15640 "practice rounds, where wannabe justices fire questions at wannabe winners."
15643 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15644 #: freeculture.xml:11728
15646 "I was convinced that to win, I had to keep the Court focused on a single "
15647 "point: that if this extension is permitted, then there is no limit to the "
15648 "power to set terms. Going with the government would mean that terms would be "
15649 "effectively unlimited; going with us would give Congress a clear line to "
15650 "follow: Don't extend existing terms. The moots were an effective practice; I "
15651 "found ways to take every question back to this central idea."
15654 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15655 #: freeculture.xml:11740
15657 "One moot was before the lawyers at Jones Day. Don Ayer was the skeptic. He "
15658 "had served in the Reagan Justice Department with Solicitor General Charles "
15659 "Fried. He had argued many cases before the Supreme Court. And in his review "
15660 "of the moot, he let his concern speak: <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
15664 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15665 #: freeculture.xml:11747
15667 "<quote>I'm just afraid that unless they really see the harm, they won't be "
15668 "willing to upset this practice that the government says has been a "
15669 "consistent practice for two hundred years. You have to make them see the "
15670 "harm—passionately get them to see the harm. For if they don't see "
15671 "that, then we haven't any chance of winning.</quote>"
15674 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15675 #: freeculture.xml:11755
15677 "He may have argued many cases before this Court, I thought, but he didn't "
15678 "understand its soul. As a clerk, I had seen the Justices do the right "
15679 "thing—not because of politics but because it was right. As a law "
15680 "professor, I had spent my life teaching my students that this Court does the "
15681 "right thing—not because of politics but because it is right. As I "
15682 "listened to Ayer's plea for passion in pressing politics, I understood his "
15683 "point, and I rejected it. Our argument was right. That was enough. Let the "
15684 "politicians learn to see that it was also good."
15688 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15689 #: freeculture.xml:11765
15691 "<emphasis role='strong'>The night before</emphasis> the argument, a line of "
15692 "people began to form in front of the Supreme Court. The case had become a "
15693 "focus of the press and of the movement to free culture. Hundreds stood in "
15694 "line for the chance to see the proceedings. Scores spent the night on the "
15695 "Supreme Court steps so that they would be assured a seat."
15698 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15699 #: freeculture.xml:11775
15701 "Not everyone has to wait in line. People who know the Justices can ask for "
15702 "seats they control. (I asked Justice Scalia's chambers for seats for my "
15703 "parents, for example.) Members of the Supreme Court bar can get a seat in a "
15704 "special section reserved for them. And senators and congressmen have a "
15705 "special place where they get to sit, too. And finally, of course, the press "
15706 "has a gallery, as do clerks working for the Justices on the Court. As we "
15707 "entered that morning, there was no place that was not taken. This was an "
15708 "argument about intellectual property law, yet the halls were filled. As I "
15709 "walked in to take my seat at the front of the Court, I saw my parents "
15710 "sitting on the left. As I sat down at the table, I saw Jack Valenti sitting "
15711 "in the special section ordinarily reserved for family of the Justices."
15714 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15715 #: freeculture.xml:11790
15717 "When the Chief Justice called me to begin my argument, I began where I "
15718 "intended to stay: on the question of the limits on Congress's power. This "
15719 "was a case about enumerated powers, I said, and whether those enumerated "
15720 "powers had any limit."
15723 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15724 #: freeculture.xml:11797
15726 "Justice O'Connor stopped me within one minute of my opening. The history "
15727 "was bothering her."
15730 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
15731 #: freeculture.xml:11802
15733 "justice o'connor: Congress has extended the term so often through the years, "
15734 "and if you are right, don't we run the risk of upsetting previous extensions "
15735 "of time? I mean, this seems to be a practice that began with the very first "
15739 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15740 #: freeculture.xml:11809
15742 "She was quite willing to concede <quote>that this flies directly in the face "
15743 "of what the framers had in mind.</quote> But my response again and again was "
15744 "to emphasize limits on Congress's power."
15748 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
15749 #: freeculture.xml:11815
15751 "mr. lessig: Well, if it flies in the face of what the framers had in mind, "
15752 "then the question is, is there a way of interpreting their words that gives "
15753 "effect to what they had in mind, and the answer is yes."
15756 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15757 #: freeculture.xml:11823
15759 "There were two points in this argument when I should have seen where the "
15760 "Court was going. The first was a question by Justice Kennedy, who observed,"
15763 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
15764 #: freeculture.xml:11829
15766 "justice kennedy: Well, I suppose implicit in the argument that the '76 act, "
15767 "too, should have been declared void, and that we might leave it alone "
15768 "because of the disruption, is that for all these years the act has impeded "
15769 "progress in science and the useful arts. I just don't see any empirical "
15770 "evidence for that."
15773 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15774 #: freeculture.xml:11837
15776 "Here follows my clear mistake. Like a professor correcting a student, I "
15780 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
15781 #: freeculture.xml:11843
15783 "mr. lessig: Justice, we are not making an empirical claim at all. Nothing "
15784 "in our Copyright Clause claim hangs upon the empirical assertion about "
15785 "impeding progress. Our only argument is this is a structural limit necessary "
15786 "to assure that what would be an effectively perpetual term not be permitted "
15787 "under the copyright laws."
15790 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15791 #: freeculture.xml:11852
15793 "That was a correct answer, but it wasn't the right answer. The right answer "
15794 "was instead that there was an obvious and profound harm. Any number of "
15795 "briefs had been written about it. He wanted to hear it. And here was the "
15796 "place Don Ayer's advice should have mattered. This was a softball; my answer "
15797 "was a swing and a miss."
15800 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15801 #: freeculture.xml:11859
15803 "The second came from the Chief, for whom the whole case had been "
15804 "crafted. For the Chief Justice had crafted the <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> "
15805 "ruling, and we hoped that he would see this case as its second cousin."
15809 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15810 #: freeculture.xml:11864
15812 "It was clear a second into his question that he wasn't at all sympathetic. "
15813 "To him, we were a bunch of anarchists. As he asked:"
15816 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
15817 #: freeculture.xml:11871
15819 "chief justice: Well, but you want more than that. You want the right to copy "
15820 "verbatim other people's books, don't you?"
15823 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
15824 #: freeculture.xml:11875
15826 "mr. lessig: We want the right to copy verbatim works that should be in the "
15827 "public domain and would be in the public domain but for a statute that "
15828 "cannot be justified under ordinary First Amendment analysis or under a "
15829 "proper reading of the limits built into the Copyright Clause."
15832 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15833 #: freeculture.xml:11883
15834 msgid "Olson, Theodore B."
15837 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15838 #: freeculture.xml:11885
15840 "Things went better for us when the government gave its argument; for now the "
15841 "Court picked up on the core of our claim. As Justice Scalia asked Solicitor "
15845 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
15846 #: freeculture.xml:11891
15848 "justice scalia: You say that the functional equivalent of an unlimited time "
15849 "would be a violation [of the Constitution], but that's precisely the "
15850 "argument that's being made by petitioners here, that a limited time which is "
15851 "extendable is the functional equivalent of an unlimited time."
15854 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15855 #: freeculture.xml:11899
15857 "When Olson was finished, it was my turn to give a closing rebuttal. Olson's "
15858 "flailing had revived my anger. But my anger still was directed to the "
15859 "academic, not the practical. The government was arguing as if this were the "
15860 "first case ever to consider limits on Congress's Copyright and Patent Clause "
15861 "power. Ever the professor and not the advocate, I closed by pointing out the "
15862 "long history of the Court imposing limits on Congress's power in the name of "
15863 "the Copyright and Patent Clause— indeed, the very first case striking "
15864 "a law of Congress as exceeding a specific enumerated power was based upon "
15865 "the Copyright and Patent Clause. All true. But it wasn't going to move the "
15866 "Court to my side."
15870 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15871 #: freeculture.xml:11912
15873 "<emphasis role='strong'>As I left</emphasis> the court that day, I knew "
15874 "there were a hundred points I wished I could remake. There were a hundred "
15875 "questions I wished I had answered differently. But one way of thinking about "
15876 "this case left me optimistic."
15879 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15880 #: freeculture.xml:11921
15882 "The government had been asked over and over again, what is the limit? Over "
15883 "and over again, it had answered there is no limit. This was precisely the "
15884 "answer I wanted the Court to hear. For I could not imagine how the Court "
15885 "could understand that the government believed Congress's power was unlimited "
15886 "under the terms of the Copyright Clause, and sustain the government's "
15887 "argument. The solicitor general had made my argument for me. No matter how "
15888 "often I tried, I could not understand how the Court could find that "
15889 "Congress's power under the Commerce Clause was limited, but under the "
15890 "Copyright Clause, unlimited. In those rare moments when I let myself believe "
15891 "that we may have prevailed, it was because I felt this Court—in "
15892 "particular, the Conservatives—would feel itself constrained by the "
15893 "rule of law that it had established elsewhere."
15896 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15897 #: freeculture.xml:11936
15899 "<emphasis role='strong'>The morning</emphasis> of January 15, 2003, I was "
15900 "five minutes late to the office and missed the 7:00 A.M. call from the "
15901 "Supreme Court clerk. Listening to the message, I could tell in an instant "
15902 "that she had bad news to report.The Supreme Court had affirmed the decision "
15903 "of the Court of Appeals. Seven justices had voted in the majority. There "
15904 "were two dissents."
15907 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15908 #: freeculture.xml:11944
15910 "A few seconds later, the opinions arrived by e-mail. I took the phone off "
15911 "the hook, posted an announcement to our blog, and sat down to see where I "
15912 "had been wrong in my reasoning."
15915 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15916 #: freeculture.xml:11949
15918 "My <emphasis>reasoning</emphasis>. Here was a case that pitted all the money "
15919 "in the world against <emphasis>reasoning</emphasis>. And here was the last "
15920 "naïve law professor, scouring the pages, looking for reasoning."
15923 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15924 #: freeculture.xml:11955
15926 "I first scoured the opinion, looking for how the Court would distinguish the "
15927 "principle in this case from the principle in "
15928 "<citetitle>Lopez</citetitle>. The argument was nowhere to be found. The case "
15929 "was not even cited. The argument that was the core argument of our case did "
15930 "not even appear in the Court's opinion."
15934 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15935 #: freeculture.xml:11965
15937 "Justice Ginsburg simply ignored the enumerated powers argument. Consistent "
15938 "with her view that Congress's power was not limited generally, she had found "
15939 "Congress's power not limited here."
15942 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15943 #: freeculture.xml:11970
15945 "Her opinion was perfectly reasonable—for her, and for Justice "
15946 "Souter. Neither believes in <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle>. It would be too "
15947 "much to expect them to write an opinion that recognized, much less "
15948 "explained, the doctrine they had worked so hard to defeat."
15951 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15952 #: freeculture.xml:11976
15954 "But as I realized what had happened, I couldn't quite believe what I was "
15955 "reading. I had said there was no way this Court could reconcile limited "
15956 "powers with the Commerce Clause and unlimited powers with the Progress "
15957 "Clause. It had never even occurred to me that they could reconcile the two "
15958 "simply <emphasis>by not addressing the argument</emphasis>. There was no "
15959 "inconsistency because they would not talk about the two together. There was "
15960 "therefore no principle that followed from the <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> "
15961 "case: In that context, Congress's power would be limited, but in this "
15962 "context it would not."
15965 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15966 #: freeculture.xml:11987
15968 "Yet by what right did they get to choose which of the framers' values they "
15969 "would respect? By what right did they—the silent five—get to "
15970 "select the part of the Constitution they would enforce based on the values "
15971 "they thought important? We were right back to the argument that I said I "
15972 "hated at the start: I had failed to convince them that the issue here was "
15973 "important, and I had failed to recognize that however much I might hate a "
15974 "system in which the Court gets to pick the constitutional values that it "
15975 "will respect, that is the system we have."
15978 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15979 #: freeculture.xml:11999
15981 "Justices Breyer and Stevens wrote very strong dissents. Stevens's opinion "
15982 "was crafted internal to the law: He argued that the tradition of "
15983 "intellectual property law should not support this unjustified extension of "
15984 "terms. He based his argument on a parallel analysis that had governed in the "
15985 "context of patents (so had we). But the rest of the Court discounted the "
15986 "parallel—without explaining how the very same words in the Progress "
15987 "Clause could come to mean totally different things depending upon whether "
15988 "the words were about patents or copyrights. The Court let Justice Stevens's "
15989 "charge go unanswered."
15993 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15994 #: freeculture.xml:12012
15996 "Justice Breyer's opinion, perhaps the best opinion he has ever written, was "
15997 "external to the Constitution. He argued that the term of copyrights has "
15998 "become so long as to be effectively unlimited. We had said that under the "
15999 "current term, a copyright gave an author 99.8 percent of the value of a "
16000 "perpetual term. Breyer said we were wrong, that the actual number was "
16001 "99.9997 percent of a perpetual term. Either way, the point was clear: If the "
16002 "Constitution said a term had to be <quote>limited,</quote> and the existing "
16003 "term was so long as to be effectively unlimited, then it was "
16004 "unconstitutional."
16007 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16008 #: freeculture.xml:12023
16010 "These two justices understood all the arguments we had made. But because "
16011 "neither believed in the <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> case, neither was "
16012 "willing to push it as a reason to reject this extension. The case was "
16013 "decided without anyone having addressed the argument that we had carried "
16014 "from Judge Sentelle. It was <citetitle>Hamlet</citetitle> without the "
16018 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16019 #: freeculture.xml:12030
16021 "<emphasis role='strong'>Defeat brings depression</emphasis>. They say it is "
16022 "a sign of health when depression gives way to anger. My anger came quickly, "
16023 "but it didn't cure the depression. This anger was of two sorts."
16026 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16027 #: freeculture.xml:12035
16028 msgid "originalism"
16031 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16032 #: freeculture.xml:12037
16034 "It was first anger with the five <quote>Conservatives.</quote> It would have "
16035 "been one thing for them to have explained why the principle of "
16036 "<citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> didn't apply in this case. That wouldn't have "
16037 "been a very convincing argument, I don't believe, having read it made by "
16038 "others, and having tried to make it myself. But it at least would have been "
16039 "an act of integrity. These justices in particular have repeatedly said that "
16040 "the proper mode of interpreting the Constitution is "
16041 "<quote>originalism</quote>—to first understand the framers' text, "
16042 "interpreted in their context, in light of the structure of the "
16043 "Constitution. That method had produced <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> and many "
16044 "other <quote>originalist</quote> rulings. Where was their "
16045 "<quote>originalism</quote> now?"
16049 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16050 #: freeculture.xml:12050
16052 "Here, they had joined an opinion that never once tried to explain what the "
16053 "framers had meant by crafting the Progress Clause as they did; they joined "
16054 "an opinion that never once tried to explain how the structure of that clause "
16055 "would affect the interpretation of Congress's power. And they joined an "
16056 "opinion that didn't even try to explain why this grant of power could be "
16057 "unlimited, whereas the Commerce Clause would be limited. In short, they had "
16058 "joined an opinion that did not apply to, and was inconsistent with, their "
16059 "own method for interpreting the Constitution. This opinion may well have "
16060 "yielded a result that they liked. It did not produce a reason that was "
16061 "consistent with their own principles."
16064 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16065 #: freeculture.xml:12065
16067 "My anger with the Conservatives quickly yielded to anger with myself. For I "
16068 "had let a view of the law that I liked interfere with a view of the law as "
16072 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16073 #: freeculture.xml:12072
16075 "Most lawyers, and most law professors, have little patience for idealism "
16076 "about courts in general and this Supreme Court in particular. Most have a "
16077 "much more pragmatic view. When Don Ayer said that this case would be won "
16078 "based on whether I could convince the Justices that the framers' values were "
16079 "important, I fought the idea, because I didn't want to believe that that is "
16080 "how this Court decides. I insisted on arguing this case as if it were a "
16081 "simple application of a set of principles. I had an argument that followed "
16082 "in logic. I didn't need to waste my time showing it should also follow in "
16087 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16088 #: freeculture.xml:12083
16090 "As I read back over the transcript from that argument in October, I can see "
16091 "a hundred places where the answers could have taken the conversation in "
16092 "different directions, where the truth about the harm that this unchecked "
16093 "power will cause could have been made clear to this Court. Justice Kennedy "
16094 "in good faith wanted to be shown. I, idiotically, corrected his "
16095 "question. Justice Souter in good faith wanted to be shown the First "
16096 "Amendment harms. I, like a math teacher, reframed the question to make the "
16097 "logical point. I had shown them how they could strike this law of Congress "
16098 "if they wanted to. There were a hundred places where I could have helped "
16099 "them want to, yet my stubbornness, my refusal to give in, stopped me. I have "
16100 "stood before hundreds of audiences trying to persuade; I have used passion "
16101 "in that effort to persuade; but I refused to stand before this audience and "
16102 "try to persuade with the passion I had used elsewhere. It was not the basis "
16103 "on which a court should decide the issue."
16106 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16107 #: freeculture.xml:12103
16109 "Would it have been different if I had argued it differently? Would it have "
16110 "been different if Don Ayer had argued it? Or Charles Fried? Or Kathleen "
16111 "Sullivan? <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
16114 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16115 #: freeculture.xml:12109
16117 "My friends huddled around me to insist it would not. The Court was not "
16118 "ready, my friends insisted. This was a loss that was destined. It would take "
16119 "a great deal more to show our society why our framers were right. And when "
16120 "we do that, we will be able to show that Court."
16123 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16124 #: freeculture.xml:12115
16126 "Maybe, but I doubt it. These Justices have no financial interest in doing "
16127 "anything except the right thing. They are not lobbied. They have little "
16128 "reason to resist doing right. I can't help but think that if I had stepped "
16129 "down from this pretty picture of dispassionate justice, I could have "
16133 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16134 #: freeculture.xml:12122
16136 "And even if I couldn't, then that doesn't excuse what happened in "
16137 "January. For at the start of this case, one of America's leading "
16138 "intellectual property professors stated publicly that my bringing this case "
16139 "was a mistake. <quote>The Court is not ready,</quote> Peter Jaszi said; this "
16140 "issue should not be raised until it is. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
16144 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16145 #: freeculture.xml:12130
16147 "After the argument and after the decision, Peter said to me, and publicly, "
16148 "that he was wrong. But if indeed that Court could not have been persuaded, "
16149 "then that is all the evidence that's needed to know that here again Peter "
16150 "was right. Either I was not ready to argue this case in a way that would do "
16151 "some good or they were not ready to hear this case in a way that would do "
16152 "some good. Either way, the decision to bring this case—a decision I "
16153 "had made four years before—was wrong."
16157 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16158 #: freeculture.xml:12139
16160 "<emphasis role='strong'>While the reaction</emphasis> to the Sonny Bono Act "
16161 "itself was almost unanimously negative, the reaction to the Court's decision "
16162 "was mixed. No one, at least in the press, tried to say that extending the "
16163 "term of copyright was a good idea. We had won that battle over ideas. Where "
16164 "the decision was praised, it was praised by papers that had been skeptical "
16165 "of the Court's activism in other cases. Deference was a good thing, even if "
16166 "it left standing a silly law. But where the decision was attacked, it was "
16167 "attacked because it left standing a silly and harmful law. <citetitle>The "
16168 "New York Times</citetitle> wrote in its editorial,"
16171 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
16172 #: freeculture.xml:12154
16174 "In effect, the Supreme Court's decision makes it likely that we are seeing "
16175 "the beginning of the end of public domain and the birth of copyright "
16176 "perpetuity. The public domain has been a grand experiment, one that should "
16177 "not be allowed to die. The ability to draw freely on the entire creative "
16178 "output of humanity is one of the reasons we live in a time of such fruitful "
16179 "creative ferment."
16182 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><figure><indexterm><primary>
16183 #: freeculture.xml:12168 freeculture.xml:12173
16184 msgid "Bolling, Ruben"
16187 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16188 #: freeculture.xml:12163
16190 "The best responses were in the cartoons. There was a gaggle of hilarious "
16191 "images—of Mickey in jail and the like. The best, from my view of the "
16192 "case, was Ruben Bolling's, reproduced on the next page (<xref "
16193 "linkend=\"fig-18\"/>). The <quote>powerful and wealthy</quote> line is a bit "
16194 "unfair. But the punch in the face felt exactly like that. <placeholder "
16195 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
16198 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><figure><title>
16199 #: freeculture.xml:12171
16200 msgid "Tom the Dancing Bug cartoon"
16203 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><figure>
16204 #: freeculture.xml:12172
16206 "<graphic fileref=\"images/18.png\"></graphic> <placeholder "
16207 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
16210 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16211 #: freeculture.xml:12176
16213 "The image that will always stick in my head is that evoked by the quote from "
16214 "<citetitle>The New York Times</citetitle>. That <quote>grand "
16215 "experiment</quote> we call the <quote>public domain</quote> is over? When I "
16216 "can make light of it, I think, <quote>Honey, I shrunk the "
16217 "Constitution.</quote> But I can rarely make light of it. We had in our "
16218 "Constitution a commitment to free culture. In the case that I fathered, the "
16219 "Supreme Court effectively renounced that commitment. A better lawyer would "
16220 "have made them see differently."
16223 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
16224 #: freeculture.xml:12187
16225 msgid "CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Eldred II"
16228 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16229 #: freeculture.xml:12189
16231 "<emphasis role='strong'>The day</emphasis> <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> was "
16232 "decided, fate would have it that I was to travel to Washington, D.C. (The "
16233 "day the rehearing petition in <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> was "
16234 "denied—meaning the case was really finally over—fate would have "
16235 "it that I was giving a speech to technologists at Disney World.) This was a "
16236 "particularly long flight to my least favorite city. The drive into the city "
16237 "from Dulles was delayed because of traffic, so I opened up my computer and "
16238 "wrote an op-ed piece."
16241 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16242 #: freeculture.xml:12201
16244 "It was an act of contrition. During the whole of the flight from San "
16245 "Francisco to Washington, I had heard over and over again in my head the same "
16246 "advice from Don Ayer: You need to make them see why it is important. And "
16247 "alternating with that command was the question of Justice Kennedy: "
16248 "<quote>For all these years the act has impeded progress in science and the "
16249 "useful arts. I just don't see any empirical evidence for that.</quote> And "
16250 "so, having failed in the argument of constitutional principle, finally, I "
16251 "turned to an argument of politics."
16255 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16256 #: freeculture.xml:12211
16258 "<citetitle>The New York Times</citetitle> published the piece. In it, I "
16259 "proposed a simple fix: Fifty years after a work has been published, the "
16260 "copyright owner would be required to register the work and pay a small "
16261 "fee. If he paid the fee, he got the benefit of the full term of "
16262 "copyright. If he did not, the work passed into the public domain."
16265 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16266 #: freeculture.xml:12219
16268 "We called this the Eldred Act, but that was just to give it a name. Eric "
16269 "Eldred was kind enough to let his name be used once again, but as he said "
16270 "early on, it won't get passed unless it has another name."
16273 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16274 #: freeculture.xml:12224
16276 "Or another two names. For depending upon your perspective, this is either "
16277 "the <quote>Public Domain Enhancement Act</quote> or the <quote>Copyright "
16278 "Term Deregulation Act.</quote> Either way, the essence of the idea is clear "
16279 "and obvious: Remove copyright where it is doing nothing except blocking "
16280 "access and the spread of knowledge. Leave it for as long as Congress allows "
16281 "for those works where its worth is at least $1. But for everything else, let "
16285 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16286 #: freeculture.xml:12232 freeculture.xml:12433
16287 msgid "Forbes, Steve"
16290 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16291 #: freeculture.xml:12234
16293 "The reaction to this idea was amazingly strong. Steve Forbes endorsed it in "
16294 "an editorial. I received an avalanche of e-mail and letters expressing "
16295 "support. When you focus the issue on lost creativity, people can see the "
16296 "copyright system makes no sense. As a good Republican might say, here "
16297 "government regulation is simply getting in the way of innovation and "
16298 "creativity. And as a good Democrat might say, here the government is "
16299 "blocking access and the spread of knowledge for no good reason. Indeed, "
16300 "there is no real difference between Democrats and Republicans on this "
16301 "issue. Anyone can recognize the stupid harm of the present system."
16304 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16305 #: freeculture.xml:12246
16307 "Indeed, many recognized the obvious benefit of the registration "
16308 "requirement. For one of the hardest things about the current system for "
16309 "people who want to license content is that there is no obvious place to look "
16310 "for the current copyright owners. Since registration is not required, since "
16311 "marking content is not required, since no formality at all is required, it "
16312 "is often impossibly hard to locate copyright owners to ask permission to use "
16313 "or license their work. This system would lower these costs, by establishing "
16314 "at least one registry where copyright owners could be identified."
16317 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16318 #: freeculture.xml:12256
16319 msgid "Berlin Act (1908)"
16322 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16323 #: freeculture.xml:12257 freeculture.xml:12298
16324 msgid "Berne Convention (1908)"
16327 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
16328 #: freeculture.xml:12265
16329 msgid "German copyright law"
16332 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16333 #: freeculture.xml:12265
16335 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> Until the 1908 Berlin Act of the "
16336 "Berne Convention, national copyright legislation sometimes made protection "
16337 "depend upon compliance with formalities such as registration, deposit, and "
16338 "affixation of notice of the author's claim of copyright. However, starting "
16339 "with the 1908 act, every text of the Convention has provided that <quote>the "
16340 "enjoyment and the exercise</quote> of rights guaranteed by the Convention "
16341 "<quote>shall not be subject to any formality.</quote> The prohibition "
16342 "against formalities is presently embodied in Article 5(2) of the Paris Text "
16343 "of the Berne Convention. Many countries continue to impose some form of "
16344 "deposit or registration requirement, albeit not as a condition of "
16345 "copyright. French law, for example, requires the deposit of copies of works "
16346 "in national repositories, principally the National Museum. Copies of books "
16347 "published in the United Kingdom must be deposited in the British "
16348 "Library. The German Copyright Act provides for a Registrar of Authors where "
16349 "the author's true name can be filed in the case of anonymous or pseudonymous "
16350 "works. Paul Goldstein, <citetitle>International Intellectual Property Law, "
16351 "Cases and Materials</citetitle> (New York: Foundation Press, 2001), "
16355 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16356 #: freeculture.xml:12260
16358 "As I described in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
16359 "linkend=\"property-i\"/>, formalities in copyright law were removed in 1976, "
16360 "when Congress followed the Europeans by abandoning any formal requirement "
16361 "before a copyright is granted.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The "
16362 "Europeans are said to view copyright as a <quote>natural right.</quote> "
16363 "Natural rights don't need forms to exist. Traditions, like the "
16364 "Anglo-American tradition that required copyright owners to follow form if "
16365 "their rights were to be protected, did not, the Europeans thought, properly "
16366 "respect the dignity of the author. My right as a creator turns on my "
16367 "creativity, not upon the special favor of the government."
16370 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16371 #: freeculture.xml:12292
16373 "That's great rhetoric. It sounds wonderfully romantic. But it is absurd "
16374 "copyright policy. It is absurd especially for authors, because a world "
16375 "without formalities harms the creator. The ability to spread <quote>Walt "
16376 "Disney creativity</quote> is destroyed when there is no simple way to know "
16377 "what's protected and what's not."
16380 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16381 #: freeculture.xml:12300
16383 "The fight against formalities achieved its first real victory in Berlin in "
16384 "1908. International copyright lawyers amended the Berne Convention in 1908, "
16385 "to require copyright terms of life plus fifty years, as well as the "
16386 "abolition of copyright formalities. The formalities were hated because the "
16387 "stories of inadvertent loss were increasingly common. It was as if a Charles "
16388 "Dickens character ran all copyright offices, and the failure to dot an "
16389 "<citetitle>i</citetitle> or cross a <citetitle>t</citetitle> resulted in the "
16390 "loss of widows' only income."
16393 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16394 #: freeculture.xml:12310
16396 "These complaints were real and sensible. And the strictness of the "
16397 "formalities, especially in the United States, was absurd. The law should "
16398 "always have ways of forgiving innocent mistakes. There is no reason "
16399 "copyright law couldn't, as well. Rather than abandoning formalities totally, "
16400 "the response in Berlin should have been to embrace a more equitable system "
16404 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16405 #: freeculture.xml:12318
16407 "Even that would have been resisted, however, because registration in the "
16408 "nineteenth and twentieth centuries was still expensive. It was also a "
16409 "hassle. The abolishment of formalities promised not only to save the "
16410 "starving widows, but also to lighten an unnecessary regulatory burden "
16411 "imposed upon creators."
16415 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16416 #: freeculture.xml:12326
16418 "In addition to the practical complaint of authors in 1908, there was a moral "
16419 "claim as well. There was no reason that creative property should be a "
16420 "second-class form of property. If a carpenter builds a table, his rights "
16421 "over the table don't depend upon filing a form with the government. He has "
16422 "a property right over the table <quote>naturally,</quote> and he can assert "
16423 "that right against anyone who would steal the table, whether or not he has "
16424 "informed the government of his ownership of the table."
16427 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16428 #: freeculture.xml:12338
16430 "This argument is correct, but its implications are misleading. For the "
16431 "argument in favor of formalities does not depend upon creative property "
16432 "being second-class property. The argument in favor of formalities turns upon "
16433 "the special problems that creative property presents. The law of "
16434 "formalities responds to the special physics of creative property, to assure "
16435 "that it can be efficiently and fairly spread."
16438 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16439 #: freeculture.xml:12347
16441 "No one thinks, for example, that land is second-class property just because "
16442 "you have to register a deed with a court if your sale of land is to be "
16443 "effective. And few would think a car is second-class property just because "
16444 "you must register the car with the state and tag it with a license. In both "
16445 "of those cases, everyone sees that there is an important reason to secure "
16446 "registration—both because it makes the markets more efficient and "
16447 "because it better secures the rights of the owner. Without a registration "
16448 "system for land, landowners would perpetually have to guard their "
16449 "property. With registration, they can simply point the police to a "
16450 "deed. Without a registration system for cars, auto theft would be much "
16451 "easier. With a registration system, the thief has a high burden to sell a "
16452 "stolen car. A slight burden is placed on the property owner, but those "
16453 "burdens produce a much better system of protection for property generally."
16456 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16457 #: freeculture.xml:12363
16459 "It is similarly special physics that makes formalities important in "
16460 "copyright law. Unlike a carpenter's table, there's nothing in nature that "
16461 "makes it relatively obvious who might own a particular bit of creative "
16462 "property. A recording of Lyle Lovett's latest album can exist in a billion "
16463 "places without anything necessarily linking it back to a particular "
16464 "owner. And like a car, there's no way to buy and sell creative property with "
16465 "confidence unless there is some simple way to authenticate who is the author "
16466 "and what rights he has. Simple transactions are destroyed in a world without "
16467 "formalities. Complex, expensive, <emphasis>lawyer</emphasis> transactions "
16468 "take their place. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
16471 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16472 #: freeculture.xml:12378
16474 "This was the understanding of the problem with the Sonny Bono Act that we "
16475 "tried to demonstrate to the Court. This was the part it didn't "
16476 "<quote>get.</quote> Because we live in a system without formalities, there "
16477 "is no way easily to build upon or use culture from our past. If copyright "
16478 "terms were, as Justice Story said they would be, <quote>short,</quote> then "
16479 "this wouldn't matter much. For fourteen years, under the framers' system, a "
16480 "work would be presumptively controlled. After fourteen years, it would be "
16481 "presumptively uncontrolled."
16484 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16485 #: freeculture.xml:12388
16487 "But now that copyrights can be just about a century long, the inability to "
16488 "know what is protected and what is not protected becomes a huge and obvious "
16489 "burden on the creative process. If the only way a library can offer an "
16490 "Internet exhibit about the New Deal is to hire a lawyer to clear the rights "
16491 "to every image and sound, then the copyright system is burdening creativity "
16492 "in a way that has never been seen before <emphasis>because there are no "
16493 "formalities</emphasis>."
16496 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16497 #: freeculture.xml:12397
16499 "The Eldred Act was designed to respond to exactly this problem. If it is "
16500 "worth $1 to you, then register your work and you can get the longer "
16501 "term. Others will know how to contact you and, therefore, how to get your "
16502 "permission if they want to use your work. And you will get the benefit of an "
16503 "extended copyright term."
16506 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16507 #: freeculture.xml:12404
16509 "If it isn't worth it to you to register to get the benefit of an extended "
16510 "term, then it shouldn't be worth it for the government to defend your "
16511 "monopoly over that work either. The work should pass into the public domain "
16512 "where anyone can copy it, or build archives with it, or create a movie based "
16513 "on it. It should become free if it is not worth $1 to you."
16516 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16517 #: freeculture.xml:12411
16519 "Some worry about the burden on authors. Won't the burden of registering the "
16520 "work mean that the $1 is really misleading? Isn't the hassle worth more than "
16521 "$1? Isn't that the real problem with registration?"
16525 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16526 #: freeculture.xml:12417
16528 "It is. The hassle is terrible. The system that exists now is awful. I "
16529 "completely agree that the Copyright Office has done a terrible job (no doubt "
16530 "because they are terribly funded) in enabling simple and cheap "
16531 "registrations. Any real solution to the problem of formalities must address "
16532 "the real problem of <emphasis>governments</emphasis> standing at the core of "
16533 "any system of formalities. In this book, I offer such a solution. That "
16534 "solution essentially remakes the Copyright Office. For now, assume it was "
16535 "Amazon that ran the registration system. Assume it was one-click "
16536 "registration. The Eldred Act would propose a simple, one-click registration "
16537 "fifty years after a work was published. Based upon historical data, that "
16538 "system would move up to 98 percent of commercial work, commercial work that "
16539 "no longer had a commercial life, into the public domain within fifty "
16540 "years. What do you think?"
16543 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16544 #: freeculture.xml:12435
16546 "<emphasis role='strong'>When Steve Forbes</emphasis> endorsed the idea, some "
16547 "in Washington began to pay attention. Many people contacted me pointing to "
16548 "representatives who might be willing to introduce the Eldred Act. And I had "
16549 "a few who directly suggested that they might be willing to take the first "
16553 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
16554 #: freeculture.xml:12449
16555 msgid "Lofgren, Zoe"
16558 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16559 #: freeculture.xml:12442
16561 "One representative, Zoe Lofgren of California, went so far as to get the "
16562 "bill drafted. The draft solved any problem with international law. It "
16563 "imposed the simplest requirement upon copyright owners possible. In May "
16564 "2003, it looked as if the bill would be introduced. On May 16, I posted on "
16565 "the Eldred Act blog, <quote>we are close.</quote> There was a general "
16566 "reaction in the blog community that something good might happen here. "
16567 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
16570 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16571 #: freeculture.xml:12452
16573 "But at this stage, the lobbyists began to intervene. Jack Valenti and the "
16574 "MPAA general counsel came to the congresswoman's office to give the view of "
16575 "the MPAA. Aided by his lawyer, as Valenti told me, Valenti informed the "
16576 "congresswoman that the MPAA would oppose the Eldred Act. The reasons are "
16577 "embarrassingly thin. More importantly, their thinness shows something clear "
16578 "about what this debate is really about."
16582 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16583 #: freeculture.xml:12460
16585 "The MPAA argued first that Congress had <quote>firmly rejected the central "
16586 "concept in the proposed bill</quote>—that copyrights be renewed. That "
16587 "was true, but irrelevant, as Congress's <quote>firm rejection</quote> had "
16588 "occurred long before the Internet made subsequent uses much more likely. "
16589 "Second, they argued that the proposal would harm poor copyright "
16590 "owners—apparently those who could not afford the $1 fee. Third, they "
16591 "argued that Congress had determined that extending a copyright term would "
16592 "encourage restoration work. Maybe in the case of the small percentage of "
16593 "work covered by copyright law that is still commercially valuable, but again "
16594 "this was irrelevant, as the proposal would not cut off the extended term "
16595 "unless the $1 fee was not paid. Fourth, the MPAA argued that the bill would "
16596 "impose <quote>enormous</quote> costs, since a registration system is not "
16597 "free. True enough, but those costs are certainly less than the costs of "
16598 "clearing the rights for a copyright whose owner is not known. Fifth, they "
16599 "worried about the risks if the copyright to a story underlying a film were "
16600 "to pass into the public domain. But what risk is that? If it is in the "
16601 "public domain, then the film is a valid derivative use."
16604 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16605 #: freeculture.xml:12481
16607 "Finally, the MPAA argued that existing law enabled copyright owners to do "
16608 "this if they wanted. But the whole point is that there are thousands of "
16609 "copyright owners who don't even know they have a copyright to give. Whether "
16610 "they are free to give away their copyright or not—a controversial "
16611 "claim in any case—unless they know about a copyright, they're not "
16615 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16616 #: freeculture.xml:12489
16618 "<emphasis role='strong'>At the beginning</emphasis> of this book, I told two "
16619 "stories about the law reacting to changes in technology. In the one, common "
16620 "sense prevailed. In the other, common sense was delayed. The difference "
16621 "between the two stories was the power of the opposition—the power of "
16622 "the side that fought to defend the status quo. In both cases, a new "
16623 "technology threatened old interests. But in only one case did those "
16624 "interest's have the power to protect themselves against this new competitive "
16628 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16629 #: freeculture.xml:12499
16631 "I used these two cases as a way to frame the war that this book has been "
16632 "about. For here, too, a new technology is forcing the law to react. And "
16633 "here, too, we should ask, is the law following or resisting common sense? If "
16634 "common sense supports the law, what explains this common sense?"
16638 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16639 #: freeculture.xml:12508
16641 "When the issue is piracy, it is right for the law to back the copyright "
16642 "owners. The commercial piracy that I described is wrong and harmful, and the "
16643 "law should work to eliminate it. When the issue is p2p sharing, it is easy "
16644 "to understand why the law backs the owners still: Much of this sharing is "
16645 "wrong, even if much is harmless. When the issue is copyright terms for the "
16646 "Mickey Mouses of the world, it is possible still to understand why the law "
16647 "favors Hollywood: Most people don't recognize the reasons for limiting "
16648 "copyright terms; it is thus still possible to see good faith within the "
16652 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16653 #: freeculture.xml:12518
16654 msgid "Kelly, Kevin"
16657 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16658 #: freeculture.xml:12520
16660 "But when the copyright owners oppose a proposal such as the Eldred Act, "
16661 "then, finally, there is an example that lays bare the naked selfinterest "
16662 "driving this war. This act would free an extraordinary range of content that "
16663 "is otherwise unused. It wouldn't interfere with any copyright owner's desire "
16664 "to exercise continued control over his content. It would simply liberate "
16665 "what Kevin Kelly calls the <quote>Dark Content</quote> that fills archives "
16666 "around the world. So when the warriors oppose a change like this, we should "
16667 "ask one simple question:"
16670 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16671 #: freeculture.xml:12530
16672 msgid "What does this industry really want?"
16675 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16676 #: freeculture.xml:12533
16678 "With very little effort, the warriors could protect their content. So the "
16679 "effort to block something like the Eldred Act is not really about protecting "
16680 "<emphasis>their</emphasis> content. The effort to block the Eldred Act is an "
16681 "effort to assure that nothing more passes into the public domain. It is "
16682 "another step to assure that the public domain will never compete, that there "
16683 "will be no use of content that is not commercially controlled, and that "
16684 "there will be no commercial use of content that doesn't require "
16685 "<emphasis>their</emphasis> permission first."
16688 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16689 #: freeculture.xml:12544
16691 "The opposition to the Eldred Act reveals how extreme the other side is. The "
16692 "most powerful and sexy and well loved of lobbies really has as its aim not "
16693 "the protection of <quote>property</quote> but the rejection of a tradition. "
16694 "Their aim is not simply to protect what is theirs. <emphasis>Their aim is to "
16695 "assure that all there is is what is theirs</emphasis>."
16699 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16700 #: freeculture.xml:12552
16702 "It is not hard to understand why the warriors take this view. It is not hard "
16703 "to see why it would benefit them if the competition of the public domain "
16704 "tied to the Internet could somehow be quashed. Just as RCA feared the "
16705 "competition of FM, they fear the competition of a public domain connected to "
16706 "a public that now has the means to create with it and to share its own "
16710 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16711 #: freeculture.xml:12564
16713 "What is hard to understand is why the public takes this view. It is as if "
16714 "the law made airplanes trespassers. The MPAA stands with the Causbys and "
16715 "demands that their remote and useless property rights be respected, so that "
16716 "these remote and forgotten copyright holders might block the progress of "
16720 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16721 #: freeculture.xml:12571
16723 "All this seems to follow easily from this untroubled acceptance of the "
16724 "<quote>property</quote> in intellectual property. Common sense supports it, "
16725 "and so long as it does, the assaults will rain down upon the technologies of "
16726 "the Internet. The consequence will be an increasing <quote>permission "
16727 "society.</quote> The past can be cultivated only if you can identify the "
16728 "owner and gain permission to build upon his work. The future will be "
16729 "controlled by this dead (and often unfindable) hand of the past."
16732 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><title>
16733 #: freeculture.xml:12583
16737 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16738 #: freeculture.xml:12585
16739 msgid "antiretroviral drugs"
16742 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16743 #: freeculture.xml:12588
16744 msgid "HIV/AIDS therapies"
16747 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16748 #: freeculture.xml:12591
16749 msgid "Africa, medications for HIV patients in"
16752 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16753 #: freeculture.xml:12594
16755 "<emphasis role='strong'>There are more</emphasis> than 35 million people "
16756 "with the AIDS virus worldwide. Twenty-five million of them live in "
16757 "sub-Saharan Africa. Seventeen million have already died. Seventeen million "
16758 "Africans is proportional percentage-wise to seven million Americans. More "
16759 "importantly, it is seventeen million Africans."
16762 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16763 #: freeculture.xml:12601
16765 "There is no cure for AIDS, but there are drugs to slow its progression. "
16766 "These antiretroviral therapies are still experimental, but they have already "
16767 "had a dramatic effect. In the United States, AIDS patients who regularly "
16768 "take a cocktail of these drugs increase their life expectancy by ten to "
16769 "twenty years. For some, the drugs make the disease almost invisible."
16773 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16774 #: freeculture.xml:12616
16776 "Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, <quote>Final Report: Integrating "
16777 "Intellectual Property Rights and Development Policy</quote> (London, 2002), "
16778 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
16779 "#55</ulink>. According to a World Health Organization press release issued 9 "
16780 "July 2002, only 230,000 of the 6 million who need drugs in the developing "
16781 "world receive them—and half of them are in Brazil."
16784 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16785 #: freeculture.xml:12609
16787 "These drugs are expensive. When they were first introduced in the United "
16788 "States, they cost between $10,000 and $15,000 per person per year. Today, "
16789 "some cost $25,000 per year. At these prices, of course, no African nation "
16790 "can afford the drugs for the vast majority of its population: $15,000 is "
16791 "thirty times the per capita gross national product of Zimbabwe. At these "
16792 "prices, the drugs are totally unavailable.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
16797 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16798 #: freeculture.xml:12627
16800 "These prices are not high because the ingredients of the drugs are "
16801 "expensive. These prices are high because the drugs are protected by "
16802 "patents. The drug companies that produced these life-saving mixes enjoy at "
16803 "least a twenty-year monopoly for their inventions. They use that monopoly "
16804 "power to extract the most they can from the market. That power is in turn "
16805 "used to keep the prices high."
16808 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16809 #: freeculture.xml:12635
16811 "There are many who are skeptical of patents, especially drug patents. I am "
16812 "not. Indeed, of all the areas of research that might be supported by "
16813 "patents, drug research is, in my view, the clearest case where patents are "
16814 "needed. The patent gives the drug company some assurance that if it is "
16815 "successful in inventing a new drug to treat a disease, it will be able to "
16816 "earn back its investment and more. This is socially an extremely valuable "
16817 "incentive. I am the last person who would argue that the law should abolish "
16818 "it, at least without other changes."
16821 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16822 #: freeculture.xml:12646
16824 "But it is one thing to support patents, even drug patents. It is another "
16825 "thing to determine how best to deal with a crisis. And as African leaders "
16826 "began to recognize the devastation that AIDS was bringing, they started "
16827 "looking for ways to import HIV treatments at costs significantly below the "
16831 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16832 #: freeculture.xml:12664 freeculture.xml:13115
16833 msgid "Braithwaite, John"
16836 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16837 #: freeculture.xml:12662
16839 "See Peter Drahos with John Braithwaite, <citetitle>Information Feudalism: "
16840 "Who Owns the Knowledge Economy?</citetitle> (New York: The New Press, 2003), "
16841 "37. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
16842 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
16845 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16846 #: freeculture.xml:12653
16848 "In 1997, South Africa tried one tack. It passed a law to allow the "
16849 "importation of patented medicines that had been produced or sold in another "
16850 "nation's market with the consent of the patent owner. For example, if the "
16851 "drug was sold in India, it could be imported into Africa from India. This is "
16852 "called <quote>parallel importation,</quote> and it is generally permitted "
16853 "under international trade law and is specifically permitted within the "
16854 "European Union.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
16858 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16859 #: freeculture.xml:12675
16861 "International Intellectual Property Institute (IIPI), <citetitle>Patent "
16862 "Protection and Access to HIV/AIDS Pharmaceuticals in Sub-Saharan Africa, a "
16863 "Report Prepared for the World Intellectual Property Organization</citetitle> "
16864 "(Washington, D.C., 2000), 14, available at <ulink "
16865 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #56</ulink>. For a firsthand "
16866 "account of the struggle over South Africa, see Hearing Before the "
16867 "Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources, House "
16868 "Committee on Government Reform, H. Rep., 1st sess., Ser. No. 106-126 (22 "
16869 "July 1999), 150–57 (statement of James Love)."
16873 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16874 #: freeculture.xml:12702
16876 "International Intellectual Property Institute (IIPI), <citetitle>Patent "
16877 "Protection and Access to HIV/AIDS Pharmaceuticals in Sub-Saharan Africa, a "
16878 "Report Prepared for the World Intellectual Property Organization</citetitle> "
16879 "(Washington, D.C., 2000), 15."
16882 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16883 #: freeculture.xml:12669
16885 "However, the United States government opposed the bill. Indeed, more than "
16886 "opposed. As the International Intellectual Property Association "
16887 "characterized it, <quote>The U.S. government pressured South Africa … "
16888 "not to permit compulsory licensing or parallel imports.</quote><placeholder "
16889 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Through the Office of the United States Trade "
16890 "Representative, the government asked South Africa to change the "
16891 "law—and to add pressure to that request, in 1998, the USTR listed "
16892 "South Africa for possible trade sanctions. That same year, more than forty "
16893 "pharmaceutical companies began proceedings in the South African courts to "
16894 "challenge the government's actions. The United States was then joined by "
16895 "other governments from the EU. Their claim, and the claim of the "
16896 "pharmaceutical companies, was that South Africa was violating its "
16897 "obligations under international law by discriminating against a particular "
16898 "kind of patent— pharmaceutical patents. The demand of these "
16899 "governments, with the United States in the lead, was that South Africa "
16900 "respect these patents as it respects any other patent, regardless of any "
16901 "effect on the treatment of AIDS within South Africa.<placeholder "
16902 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
16905 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16906 #: freeculture.xml:12708
16908 "We should place the intervention by the United States in context. No doubt "
16909 "patents are not the most important reason that Africans don't have access to "
16910 "drugs. Poverty and the total absence of an effective health care "
16911 "infrastructure matter more. But whether patents are the most important "
16912 "reason or not, the price of drugs has an effect on their demand, and patents "
16913 "affect price. And so, whether massive or marginal, there was an effect from "
16914 "our government's intervention to stop the flow of medications into Africa."
16917 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16918 #: freeculture.xml:12718
16920 "By stopping the flow of HIV treatment into Africa, the United States "
16921 "government was not saving drugs for United States citizens. This is not "
16922 "like wheat (if they eat it, we can't); instead, the flow that the United "
16923 "States intervened to stop was, in effect, a flow of knowledge: information "
16924 "about how to take chemicals that exist within Africa, and turn those "
16925 "chemicals into drugs that would save 15 to 30 million lives."
16928 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16929 #: freeculture.xml:12726
16931 "Nor was the intervention by the United States going to protect the profits "
16932 "of United States drug companies—at least, not substantially. It was "
16933 "not as if these countries were in the position to buy the drugs for the "
16934 "prices the drug companies were charging. Again, the Africans are wildly too "
16935 "poor to afford these drugs at the offered prices. Stopping the parallel "
16936 "import of these drugs would not substantially increase the sales by "
16942 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16943 #: freeculture.xml:12741
16945 "See Sabin Russell, <quote>New Crusade to Lower AIDS Drug Costs: Africa's "
16946 "Needs at Odds with Firms' Profit Motive,</quote> <citetitle>San Francisco "
16947 "Chronicle</citetitle>, 24 May 1999, A1, available at <ulink "
16948 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #57</ulink> (<quote>compulsory "
16949 "licenses and gray markets pose a threat to the entire system of intellectual "
16950 "property protection</quote>); Robert Weissman, <quote>AIDS and Developing "
16951 "Countries: Democratizing Access to Essential Medicines,</quote> "
16952 "<citetitle>Foreign Policy in Focus</citetitle> 4:23 (August 1999), available "
16953 "at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #58</ulink> (describing "
16954 "U.S. policy); John A. Harrelson, <quote>TRIPS, Pharmaceutical Patents, and "
16955 "the HIV/AIDS Crisis: Finding the Proper Balance Between Intellectual "
16956 "Property Rights and Compassion, a Synopsis,</quote> <citetitle>Widener Law "
16957 "Symposium Journal</citetitle> (Spring 2001): 175."
16960 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16961 #: freeculture.xml:12735
16963 "Instead, the argument in favor of restricting this flow of information, "
16964 "which was needed to save the lives of millions, was an argument about the "
16965 "sanctity of property.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> It was "
16966 "because <quote>intellectual property</quote> would be violated that these "
16967 "drugs should not flow into Africa. It was a principle about the importance "
16968 "of <quote>intellectual property</quote> that led these government actors to "
16969 "intervene against the South African response to AIDS."
16972 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16973 #: freeculture.xml:12762
16975 "Now just step back for a moment. There will be a time thirty years from now "
16976 "when our children look back at us and ask, how could we have let this "
16977 "happen? How could we allow a policy to be pursued whose direct cost would be "
16978 "to speed the death of 15 to 30 million Africans, and whose only real benefit "
16979 "would be to uphold the <quote>sanctity</quote> of an idea? What possible "
16980 "justification could there ever be for a policy that results in so many "
16981 "deaths? What exactly is the insanity that would allow so many to die for "
16982 "such an abstraction?"
16985 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16986 #: freeculture.xml:12772
16988 "Some blame the drug companies. I don't. They are corporations. Their "
16989 "managers are ordered by law to make money for the corporation. They push a "
16990 "certain patent policy not because of ideals, but because it is the policy "
16991 "that makes them the most money. And it only makes them the most money "
16992 "because of a certain corruption within our political system— a "
16993 "corruption the drug companies are certainly not responsible for."
16996 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16997 #: freeculture.xml:12780
16999 "The corruption is our own politicians' failure of integrity. For the drug "
17000 "companies would love—they say, and I believe them—to sell their "
17001 "drugs as cheaply as they can to countries in Africa and elsewhere. There "
17002 "are issues they'd have to resolve to make sure the drugs didn't get back "
17003 "into the United States, but those are mere problems of technology. They "
17004 "could be overcome."
17008 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17009 #: freeculture.xml:12788
17011 "A different problem, however, could not be overcome. This is the fear of the "
17012 "grandstanding politician who would call the presidents of the drug companies "
17013 "before a Senate or House hearing, and ask, <quote>How is it you can sell "
17014 "this HIV drug in Africa for only $1 a pill, but the same drug would cost an "
17015 "American $1,500?</quote> Because there is no <quote>sound bite</quote> "
17016 "answer to that question, its effect would be to induce regulation of prices "
17017 "in America. The drug companies thus avoid this spiral by avoiding the first "
17018 "step. They reinforce the idea that property should be sacred. They adopt a "
17019 "rational strategy in an irrational context, with the unintended consequence "
17020 "that perhaps millions die. And that rational strategy thus becomes framed in "
17021 "terms of this ideal—the sanctity of an idea called <quote>intellectual "
17022 "property.</quote>"
17025 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17026 #: freeculture.xml:12803
17028 "So when the common sense of your child confronts you, what will you say? "
17029 "When the common sense of a generation finally revolts against what we have "
17030 "done, how will we justify what we have done? What is the argument?"
17033 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17034 #: freeculture.xml:12809
17036 "A sensible patent policy could endorse and strongly support the patent "
17037 "system without having to reach everyone everywhere in exactly the same "
17038 "way. Just as a sensible copyright policy could endorse and strongly support "
17039 "a copyright system without having to regulate the spread of culture "
17040 "perfectly and forever, a sensible patent policy could endorse and strongly "
17041 "support a patent system without having to block the spread of drugs to a "
17042 "country not rich enough to afford market prices in any case. A sensible "
17043 "policy, in other words, could be a balanced policy. For most of our history, "
17044 "both copyright and patent policies were balanced in just this sense."
17047 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17048 #: freeculture.xml:12821
17050 "But we as a culture have lost this sense of balance. We have lost the "
17051 "critical eye that helps us see the difference between truth and extremism. "
17052 "A certain property fundamentalism, having no connection to our tradition, "
17053 "now reigns in this culture—bizarrely, and with consequences more grave "
17054 "to the spread of ideas and culture than almost any other single policy "
17055 "decision that we as a democracy will make."
17059 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17060 #: freeculture.xml:12832
17062 "<emphasis role='strong'>A simple idea</emphasis> blinds us, and under the "
17063 "cover of darkness, much happens that most of us would reject if any of us "
17064 "looked. So uncritically do we accept the idea of property in ideas that we "
17065 "don't even notice how monstrous it is to deny ideas to a people who are "
17066 "dying without them. So uncritically do we accept the idea of property in "
17067 "culture that we don't even question when the control of that property "
17068 "removes our ability, as a people, to develop our culture "
17069 "democratically. Blindness becomes our common sense. And the challenge for "
17070 "anyone who would reclaim the right to cultivate our culture is to find a way "
17071 "to make this common sense open its eyes."
17074 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17075 #: freeculture.xml:12846
17077 "So far, common sense sleeps. There is no revolt. Common sense does not yet "
17078 "see what there could be to revolt about. The extremism that now dominates "
17079 "this debate fits with ideas that seem natural, and that fit is reinforced by "
17080 "the RCAs of our day. They wage a frantic war to fight <quote>piracy,</quote> "
17081 "and devastate a culture for creativity. They defend the idea of "
17082 "<quote>creative property,</quote> while transforming real creators into "
17083 "modern-day sharecroppers. They are insulted by the idea that rights should "
17084 "be balanced, even though each of the major players in this content war was "
17085 "itself a beneficiary of a more balanced ideal. The hypocrisy reeks. Yet in a "
17086 "city like Washington, hypocrisy is not even noticed. Powerful lobbies, "
17087 "complex issues, and MTV attention spans produce the <quote>perfect "
17088 "storm</quote> for free culture."
17091 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17092 #: freeculture.xml:12861
17093 msgid "biomedical research"
17096 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17097 #: freeculture.xml:12863
17098 msgid "Wellcome Trust"
17102 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17103 #: freeculture.xml:12868
17105 "Jonathan Krim, <quote>The Quiet War over Open-Source,</quote> "
17106 "<citetitle>Washington Post</citetitle>, August 2003, E1, available at <ulink "
17107 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #59</ulink>; William New, "
17108 "<quote>Global Group's Shift on `Open Source' Meeting Spurs Stir,</quote> "
17109 "<citetitle>National Journal's Technology Daily</citetitle>, 19 August 2003, "
17110 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #60</ulink>; "
17111 "William New, <quote>U.S. Official Opposes `Open Source' Talks at "
17112 "WIPO,</quote> <citetitle>National Journal's Technology Daily</citetitle>, 19 "
17113 "August 2003, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
17117 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
17118 #: freeculture.xml:12896 freeculture.xml:13583
17119 msgid "academic journals"
17122 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
17123 #: freeculture.xml:12897 freeculture.xml:12988 freeculture.xml:13508
17127 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
17128 #: freeculture.xml:12898 freeculture.xml:13647
17129 msgid "PLoS (Public Library of Science)"
17132 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17133 #: freeculture.xml:12865
17135 "<emphasis role='strong'>In August 2003</emphasis>, a fight broke out in the "
17136 "United States about a decision by the World Intellectual Property "
17137 "Organization to cancel a meeting.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
17138 "At the request of a wide range of interests, WIPO had decided to hold a "
17139 "meeting to discuss <quote>open and collaborative projects to create public "
17140 "goods.</quote> These are projects that have been successful in producing "
17141 "public goods without relying exclusively upon a proprietary use of "
17142 "intellectual property. Examples include the Internet and the World Wide Web, "
17143 "both of which were developed on the basis of protocols in the public "
17144 "domain. It included an emerging trend to support open academic journals, "
17145 "including the Public Library of Science project that I describe in the "
17146 "Afterword. It included a project to develop single nucleotide polymorphisms "
17147 "(SNPs), which are thought to have great significance in biomedical "
17148 "research. (That nonprofit project comprised a consortium of the Wellcome "
17149 "Trust and pharmaceutical and technological companies, including Amersham "
17150 "Biosciences, AstraZeneca, Aventis, Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Hoffmann-La "
17151 "Roche, Glaxo-SmithKline, IBM, Motorola, Novartis, Pfizer, and Searle.) It "
17152 "included the Global Positioning System, which Ronald Reagan set free in the "
17153 "early 1980s. And it included <quote>open source and free software.</quote> "
17154 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
17155 "id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/>"
17158 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17159 #: freeculture.xml:12902
17161 "The aim of the meeting was to consider this wide range of projects from one "
17162 "common perspective: that none of these projects relied upon intellectual "
17163 "property extremism. Instead, in all of them, intellectual property was "
17164 "balanced by agreements to keep access open or to impose limitations on the "
17165 "way in which proprietary claims might be used."
17169 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17170 #: freeculture.xml:12910
17172 "I should disclose that I was one of the people who asked WIPO for the "
17176 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17177 #: freeculture.xml:12909
17179 "From the perspective of this book, then, the conference was "
17180 "ideal.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The projects within its "
17181 "scope included both commercial and noncommercial work. They primarily "
17182 "involved science, but from many perspectives. And WIPO was an ideal venue "
17183 "for this discussion, since WIPO is the preeminent international body dealing "
17184 "with intellectual property issues."
17188 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17189 #: freeculture.xml:12920
17191 "Indeed, I was once publicly scolded for not recognizing this fact about "
17192 "WIPO. In February 2003, I delivered a keynote address to a preparatory "
17193 "conference for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). At a "
17194 "press conference before the address, I was asked what I would say. I "
17195 "responded that I would be talking a little about the importance of balance "
17196 "in intellectual property for the development of an information society. The "
17197 "moderator for the event then promptly interrupted to inform me and the "
17198 "assembled reporters that no question about intellectual property would be "
17199 "discussed by WSIS, since those questions were the exclusive domain of "
17200 "WIPO. In the talk that I had prepared, I had actually made the issue of "
17201 "intellectual property relatively minor. But after this astonishing "
17202 "statement, I made intellectual property the sole focus of my talk. There was "
17203 "no way to talk about an <quote>Information Society</quote> unless one also "
17204 "talked about the range of information and culture that would be free. My "
17205 "talk did not make my immoderate moderator very happy. And she was no doubt "
17206 "correct that the scope of intellectual property protections was ordinarily "
17207 "the stuff of WIPO. But in my view, there couldn't be too much of a "
17208 "conversation about how much intellectual property is needed, since in my "
17209 "view, the very idea of balance in intellectual property had been lost."
17212 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17213 #: freeculture.xml:12944
17215 "So whether or not WSIS can discuss balance in intellectual property, I had "
17216 "thought it was taken for granted that WIPO could and should. And thus the "
17217 "meeting about <quote>open and collaborative projects to create public "
17218 "goods</quote> seemed perfectly appropriate within the WIPO agenda."
17221 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17222 #: freeculture.xml:12950
17224 "But there is one project within that list that is highly controversial, at "
17225 "least among lobbyists. That project is <quote>open source and free "
17226 "software.</quote> Microsoft in particular is wary of discussion of the "
17227 "subject. From its perspective, a conference to discuss open source and free "
17228 "software would be like a conference to discuss Apple's operating "
17229 "system. Both open source and free software compete with Microsoft's "
17230 "software. And internationally, many governments have begun to explore "
17231 "requirements that they use open source or free software, rather than "
17232 "<quote>proprietary software,</quote> for their own internal uses."
17236 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17237 #: freeculture.xml:12972
17239 "Microsoft's position about free and open source software is more "
17240 "sophisticated. As it has repeatedly asserted, it has no problem with "
17241 "<quote>open source</quote> software or software in the public "
17242 "domain. Microsoft's principal opposition is to <quote>free software</quote> "
17243 "licensed under a <quote>copyleft</quote> license, meaning a license that "
17244 "requires the licensee to adopt the same terms on any derivative work. See "
17245 "Bradford L. Smith, <quote>The Future of Software: Enabling the Marketplace "
17246 "to Decide,</quote> <citetitle>Government Policy Toward Open Source "
17247 "Software</citetitle> (Washington, D.C.: AEI-Brookings Joint Center for "
17248 "Regulatory Studies, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy "
17249 "Research, 2002), 69, available at <ulink "
17250 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #62</ulink>. See also Craig "
17251 "Mundie, Microsoft senior vice president, <citetitle>The Commercial Software "
17252 "Model</citetitle>, discussion at New York University Stern School of "
17253 "Business (3 May 2001), available at <ulink "
17254 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #63</ulink>."
17257 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
17258 #: freeculture.xml:12989
17259 msgid "<quote>copyleft</quote> licenses"
17262 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17263 #: freeculture.xml:12961
17265 "I don't mean to enter that debate here. It is important only to make clear "
17266 "that the distinction is not between commercial and noncommercial "
17267 "software. There are many important companies that depend fundamentally upon "
17268 "open source and free software, IBM being the most prominent. IBM is "
17269 "increasingly shifting its focus to the GNU/Linux operating system, the most "
17270 "famous bit of <quote>free software</quote>—and IBM is emphatically a "
17271 "commercial entity. Thus, to support <quote>open source and free "
17272 "software</quote> is not to oppose commercial entities. It is, instead, to "
17273 "support a mode of software development that is different from "
17274 "Microsoft's.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
17275 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> "
17276 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
17281 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17282 #: freeculture.xml:12994
17284 "More important for our purposes, to support <quote>open source and free "
17285 "software</quote> is not to oppose copyright. <quote>Open source and free "
17286 "software</quote> is not software in the public domain. Instead, like "
17287 "Microsoft's software, the copyright owners of free and open source software "
17288 "insist quite strongly that the terms of their software license be respected "
17289 "by adopters of free and open source software. The terms of that license are "
17290 "no doubt different from the terms of a proprietary software license. Free "
17291 "software licensed under the General Public License (GPL), for example, "
17292 "requires that the source code for the software be made available by anyone "
17293 "who modifies and redistributes the software. But that requirement is "
17294 "effective only if copyright governs software. If copyright did not govern "
17295 "software, then free software could not impose the same kind of requirements "
17296 "on its adopters. It thus depends upon copyright law just as Microsoft does."
17300 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17301 #: freeculture.xml:13020
17303 "Krim, <quote>The Quiet War over Open-Source,</quote> available at <ulink "
17304 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #64</ulink>."
17307 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
17308 #: freeculture.xml:13024
17309 msgid "Krim, Jonathan"
17312 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17313 #: freeculture.xml:13012
17315 "It is therefore understandable that as a proprietary software developer, "
17316 "Microsoft would oppose this WIPO meeting, and understandable that it would "
17317 "use its lobbyists to get the United States government to oppose it, as "
17318 "well. And indeed, that is just what was reported to have happened. According "
17319 "to Jonathan Krim of the <citetitle>Washington Post</citetitle>, Microsoft's "
17320 "lobbyists succeeded in getting the United States government to veto the "
17321 "meeting.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> And without U.S. backing, "
17322 "the meeting was canceled. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
17325 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17326 #: freeculture.xml:13027
17328 "I don't blame Microsoft for doing what it can to advance its own interests, "
17329 "consistent with the law. And lobbying governments is plainly consistent with "
17330 "the law. There was nothing surprising about its lobbying here, and nothing "
17331 "terribly surprising about the most powerful software producer in the United "
17332 "States having succeeded in its lobbying efforts."
17335 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17336 #: freeculture.xml:13034 freeculture.xml:13088
17337 msgid "Boland, Lois"
17340 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17341 #: freeculture.xml:13036
17343 "What was surprising was the United States government's reason for opposing "
17344 "the meeting. Again, as reported by Krim, Lois Boland, acting director of "
17345 "international relations for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, explained "
17346 "that <quote>open-source software runs counter to the mission of WIPO, which "
17347 "is to promote intellectual-property rights.</quote> She is quoted as saying, "
17348 "<quote>To hold a meeting which has as its purpose to disclaim or waive such "
17349 "rights seems to us to be contrary to the goals of WIPO.</quote>"
17352 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17353 #: freeculture.xml:13046
17354 msgid "These statements are astonishing on a number of levels."
17357 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17358 #: freeculture.xml:13050
17360 "First, they are just flat wrong. As I described, most open source and free "
17361 "software relies fundamentally upon the intellectual property right called "
17362 "<quote>copyright</quote>. Without it, restrictions imposed by those "
17363 "licenses wouldn't work. Thus, to say it <quote>runs counter</quote> to the "
17364 "mission of promoting intellectual property rights reveals an extraordinary "
17365 "gap in understanding—the sort of mistake that is excusable in a "
17366 "first-year law student, but an embarrassment from a high government official "
17367 "dealing with intellectual property issues."
17370 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17371 #: freeculture.xml:13059
17372 msgid "generic drugs"
17375 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17376 #: freeculture.xml:13061
17378 "Second, who ever said that WIPO's exclusive aim was to "
17379 "<quote>promote</quote> intellectual property maximally? As I had been "
17380 "scolded at the preparatory conference of WSIS, WIPO is to consider not only "
17381 "how best to protect intellectual property, but also what the best balance of "
17382 "intellectual property is. As every economist and lawyer knows, the hard "
17383 "question in intellectual property law is to find that balance. But that "
17384 "there should be limits is, I had thought, uncontested. One wants to ask "
17385 "Ms. Boland, are generic drugs (drugs based on drugs whose patent has "
17386 "expired) contrary to the WIPO mission? Does the public domain weaken "
17387 "intellectual property? Would it have been better if the protocols of the "
17388 "Internet had been patented?"
17391 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17392 #: freeculture.xml:13075
17394 "Third, even if one believed that the purpose of WIPO was to maximize "
17395 "intellectual property rights, in our tradition, intellectual property rights "
17396 "are held by individuals and corporations. They get to decide what to do with "
17397 "those rights because, again, they are <emphasis>their</emphasis> rights. If "
17398 "they want to <quote>waive</quote> or <quote>disclaim</quote> their rights, "
17399 "that is, within our tradition, totally appropriate. When Bill Gates gives "
17400 "away more than $20 billion to do good in the world, that is not inconsistent "
17401 "with the objectives of the property system. That is, on the contrary, just "
17402 "what a property system is supposed to be about: giving individuals the right "
17403 "to decide what to do with <emphasis>their</emphasis> property."
17407 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17408 #: freeculture.xml:13091
17410 "When Ms. Boland says that there is something wrong with a meeting "
17411 "<quote>which has as its purpose to disclaim or waive such rights,</quote> "
17412 "she's saying that WIPO has an interest in interfering with the choices of "
17413 "the individuals who own intellectual property rights. That somehow, WIPO's "
17414 "objective should be to stop an individual from <quote>waiving</quote> or "
17415 "<quote>disclaiming</quote> an intellectual property right. That the interest "
17416 "of WIPO is not just that intellectual property rights be maximized, but that "
17417 "they also should be exercised in the most extreme and restrictive way "
17421 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17422 #: freeculture.xml:13103
17424 "There is a history of just such a property system that is well known in the "
17425 "Anglo-American tradition. It is called <quote>feudalism.</quote> Under "
17426 "feudalism, not only was property held by a relatively small number of "
17427 "individuals and entities. And not only were the rights that ran with that "
17428 "property powerful and extensive. But the feudal system had a strong interest "
17429 "in assuring that property holders within that system not weaken feudalism by "
17430 "liberating people or property within their control to the free "
17431 "market. Feudalism depended upon maximum control and concentration. It fought "
17432 "any freedom that might interfere with that control."
17435 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17436 #: freeculture.xml:13120
17438 "See Drahos with Braithwaite, <citetitle>Information Feudalism</citetitle>, "
17439 "210–20. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
17442 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17443 #: freeculture.xml:13117
17445 "As Peter Drahos and John Braithwaite relate, this is precisely the choice we "
17446 "are now making about intellectual property.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
17447 "id=\"0\"/> We will have an information society. That much is certain. Our "
17448 "only choice now is whether that information society will be "
17449 "<emphasis>free</emphasis> or <emphasis>feudal</emphasis>. The trend is "
17450 "toward the feudal."
17453 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17454 #: freeculture.xml:13129
17456 "When this battle broke, I blogged it. A spirited debate within the comment "
17457 "section ensued. Ms. Boland had a number of supporters who tried to show why "
17458 "her comments made sense. But there was one comment that was particularly "
17459 "depressing for me. An anonymous poster wrote,"
17463 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para>
17464 #: freeculture.xml:13136
17466 "George, you misunderstand Lessig: He's only talking about the world as it "
17467 "should be (<quote>the goal of WIPO, and the goal of any government, should "
17468 "be to promote the right balance of intellectual property rights, not simply "
17469 "to promote intellectual property rights</quote>), not as it is. If we were "
17470 "talking about the world as it is, then of course Boland didn't say anything "
17471 "wrong. But in the world as Lessig would have it, then of course she "
17472 "did. Always pay attention to the distinction between Lessig's world and "
17476 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17477 #: freeculture.xml:13148
17479 "I missed the irony the first time I read it. I read it quickly and thought "
17480 "the poster was supporting the idea that seeking balance was what our "
17481 "government should be doing. (Of course, my criticism of Ms. Boland was not "
17482 "about whether she was seeking balance or not; my criticism was that her "
17483 "comments betrayed a first-year law student's mistake. I have no illusion "
17484 "about the extremism of our government, whether Republican or Democrat. My "
17485 "only illusion apparently is about whether our government should speak the "
17489 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17490 #: freeculture.xml:13159
17492 "Obviously, however, the poster was not supporting that idea. Instead, the "
17493 "poster was ridiculing the very idea that in the real world, the "
17494 "<quote>goal</quote> of a government should be <quote>to promote the right "
17495 "balance</quote> of intellectual property. That was obviously silly to "
17496 "him. And it obviously betrayed, he believed, my own silly "
17497 "utopianism. <quote>Typical for an academic,</quote> the poster might well "
17501 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17502 #: freeculture.xml:13167
17504 "I understand criticism of academic utopianism. I think utopianism is silly, "
17505 "too, and I'd be the first to poke fun at the absurdly unrealistic ideals of "
17506 "academics throughout history (and not just in our own country's history)."
17509 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17510 #: freeculture.xml:13173
17512 "But when it has become silly to suppose that the role of our government "
17513 "should be to <quote>seek balance,</quote> then count me with the silly, for "
17514 "that means that this has become quite serious indeed. If it should be "
17515 "obvious to everyone that the government does not seek balance, that the "
17516 "government is simply the tool of the most powerful lobbyists, that the idea "
17517 "of holding the government to a different standard is absurd, that the idea "
17518 "of demanding of the government that it speak truth and not lies is just "
17519 "naïve, then who have we, the most powerful democracy in the world, "
17524 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17525 #: freeculture.xml:13184
17527 "It might be crazy to expect a high government official to speak the "
17528 "truth. It might be crazy to believe that government policy will be something "
17529 "more than the handmaiden of the most powerful interests. It might be crazy "
17530 "to argue that we should preserve a tradition that has been part of our "
17531 "tradition for most of our history—free culture."
17534 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17535 #: freeculture.xml:13193
17536 msgid "Turner, Ted"
17539 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17540 #: freeculture.xml:13195
17541 msgid "If this is crazy, then let there be more crazies. Soon."
17544 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17545 #: freeculture.xml:13198
17547 "<emphasis role='strong'>There are moments</emphasis> of hope in this "
17548 "struggle. And moments that surprise. When the FCC was considering relaxing "
17549 "ownership rules, which would thereby further increase the concentration in "
17550 "media ownership, an extraordinary bipartisan coalition formed to fight this "
17551 "change. For perhaps the first time in history, interests as diverse as the "
17552 "NRA, the ACLU, Moveon.org, William Safire, Ted Turner, and CodePink Women "
17553 "for Peace organized to oppose this change in FCC policy. An astonishing "
17554 "700,000 letters were sent to the FCC, demanding more hearings and a "
17555 "different result."
17558 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17559 #: freeculture.xml:13209
17561 "This activism did not stop the FCC, but soon after, a broad coalition in the "
17562 "Senate voted to reverse the FCC decision. The hostile hearings leading up to "
17563 "that vote revealed just how powerful this movement had become. There was no "
17564 "substantial support for the FCC's decision, and there was broad and "
17565 "sustained support for fighting further concentration in the media."
17568 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17569 #: freeculture.xml:13217
17571 "But even this movement misses an important piece of the puzzle. Largeness "
17572 "as such is not bad. Freedom is not threatened just because some become very "
17573 "rich, or because there are only a handful of big players. The poor quality "
17574 "of Big Macs or Quarter Pounders does not mean that you can't get a good "
17575 "hamburger from somewhere else."
17578 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17579 #: freeculture.xml:13224
17581 "The danger in media concentration comes not from the concentration, but "
17582 "instead from the feudalism that this concentration, tied to the change in "
17583 "copyright, produces. It is not just that there are a few powerful companies "
17584 "that control an ever expanding slice of the media. It is that this "
17585 "concentration can call upon an equally bloated range of "
17586 "rights—property rights of a historically extreme form—that makes "
17587 "their bigness bad."
17590 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17591 #: freeculture.xml:13234
17593 "It is therefore significant that so many would rally to demand competition "
17594 "and increased diversity. Still, if the rally is understood as being about "
17595 "bigness alone, it is not terribly surprising. We Americans have a long "
17596 "history of fighting <quote>big,</quote> wisely or not. That we could be "
17597 "motivated to fight <quote>big</quote> again is not something new."
17600 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17601 #: freeculture.xml:13241
17603 "It would be something new, and something very important, if an equal number "
17604 "could be rallied to fight the increasing extremism built within the idea of "
17605 "<quote>intellectual property.</quote> Not because balance is alien to our "
17606 "tradition; indeed, as I've argued, balance is our tradition. But because the "
17607 "muscle to think critically about the scope of anything called "
17608 "<quote>property</quote> is not well exercised within this tradition anymore."
17611 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17612 #: freeculture.xml:13249
17614 "If we were Achilles, this would be our heel. This would be the place of our "
17618 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17619 #: freeculture.xml:13252
17624 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17625 #: freeculture.xml:13258
17627 "John Borland, <quote>RIAA Sues 261 File Swappers,</quote> CNET News.com, "
17628 "September 2003, available at <ulink "
17629 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #65</ulink>; Paul R. La Monica, "
17630 "<quote>Music Industry Sues Swappers,</quote> CNN/Money, 8 September 2003, "
17631 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #66</ulink>; "
17632 "Soni Sangha and Phyllis Furman with Robert Gearty, <quote>Sued for a Song, "
17633 "N.Y.C. 12-Yr-Old Among 261 Cited as Sharers,</quote> <citetitle>New York "
17634 "Daily News</citetitle>, 9 September 2003, 3; Frank Ahrens, <quote>RIAA's "
17635 "Lawsuits Meet Surprised Targets; Single Mother in Calif., 12-Year-Old Girl "
17636 "in N.Y. Among Defendants,</quote> <citetitle>Washington Post</citetitle>, 10 "
17637 "September 2003, E1; Katie Dean, <quote>Schoolgirl Settles with RIAA,</quote> "
17638 "<citetitle>Wired News</citetitle>, 10 September 2003, available at <ulink "
17639 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #67</ulink>."
17643 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17644 #: freeculture.xml:13276
17646 "Jon Wiederhorn, <quote>Eminem Gets Sued … by a Little Old "
17647 "Lady,</quote> mtv.com, 17 September 2003, available at <ulink "
17648 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #68</ulink>."
17653 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17654 #: freeculture.xml:13283
17656 "Kenji Hall, Associated Press, <quote>Japanese Book May Be Inspiration for "
17657 "Dylan Songs,</quote> Kansascity.com, 9 July 2003, available at <ulink "
17658 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #69</ulink>."
17661 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17662 #: freeculture.xml:13254
17664 "<emphasis role='strong'>As I write</emphasis> these final words, the news is "
17665 "filled with stories about the RIAA lawsuits against almost three hundred "
17666 "individuals.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Eminem has just been "
17667 "sued for <quote>sampling</quote> someone else's music.<placeholder "
17668 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> The story about Bob Dylan "
17669 "<quote>stealing</quote> from a Japanese author has just finished making the "
17670 "rounds.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/> An insider from "
17671 "Hollywood—who insists he must remain anonymous—reports <quote>an "
17672 "amazing conversation with these studio guys. They've got extraordinary [old] "
17673 "content that they'd love to use but can't because they can't begin to clear "
17674 "the rights. They've got scores of kids who could do amazing things with the "
17675 "content, but it would take scores of lawyers to clean it first.</quote> "
17676 "Congressmen are talking about deputizing computer viruses to bring down "
17677 "computers thought to violate the law. Universities are threatening expulsion "
17678 "for kids who use a computer to share content."
17681 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
17682 #: freeculture.xml:13300 freeculture.xml:13664
17683 msgid "Creative Commons"
17686 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17687 #: freeculture.xml:13301
17688 msgid "Gil, Gilberto"
17691 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17692 #: freeculture.xml:13302
17696 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17697 #: freeculture.xml:13303
17698 msgid "Brazil, free culture in"
17702 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17703 #: freeculture.xml:13308
17705 "<quote>BBC Plans to Open Up Its Archive to the Public,</quote> BBC press "
17706 "release, 24 August 2003, available at <ulink "
17707 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #70</ulink>."
17711 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17712 #: freeculture.xml:13317
17714 "<quote>Creative Commons and Brazil,</quote> Creative Commons Weblog, 6 "
17715 "August 2003, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
17720 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17721 #: freeculture.xml:13305
17723 "Yet on the other side of the Atlantic, the BBC has just announced that it "
17724 "will build a <quote>Creative Archive,</quote> from which British citizens "
17725 "can download BBC content, and rip, mix, and burn it.<placeholder "
17726 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> And in Brazil, the culture minister, Gilberto "
17727 "Gil, himself a folk hero of Brazilian music, has joined with Creative "
17728 "Commons to release content and free licenses in that Latin American "
17729 "country.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> I've told a dark "
17730 "story. The truth is more mixed. A technology has given us a new "
17731 "freedom. Slowly, some begin to understand that this freedom need not mean "
17732 "anarchy. We can carry a free culture into the twenty-first century, without "
17733 "artists losing and without the potential of digital technology being "
17734 "destroyed. It will take some thought, and more importantly, it will take "
17735 "some will to transform the RCAs of our day into the Causbys."
17739 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17740 #: freeculture.xml:13331
17742 "Common sense must revolt. It must act to free culture. Soon, if this "
17743 "potential is ever to be realized."
17746 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><title>
17747 #: freeculture.xml:13339
17752 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17753 #: freeculture.xml:13343
17755 "<emphasis role='strong'>At least some</emphasis> who have read this far will "
17756 "agree with me that something must be done to change where we are "
17757 "heading. The balance of this book maps what might be done."
17760 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17761 #: freeculture.xml:13348
17763 "I divide this map into two parts: that which anyone can do now, and that "
17764 "which requires the help of lawmakers. If there is one lesson that we can "
17765 "draw from the history of remaking common sense, it is that it requires "
17766 "remaking how many people think about the very same issue."
17769 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17770 #: freeculture.xml:13354
17772 "That means this movement must begin in the streets. It must recruit a "
17773 "significant number of parents, teachers, librarians, creators, authors, "
17774 "musicians, filmmakers, scientists—all to tell this story in their own "
17775 "words, and to tell their neighbors why this battle is so important."
17778 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17779 #: freeculture.xml:13361
17781 "Once this movement has its effect in the streets, it has some hope of having "
17782 "an effect in Washington. We are still a democracy. What people think "
17783 "matters. Not as much as it should, at least when an RCA stands opposed, but "
17784 "still, it matters. And thus, in the second part below, I sketch changes that "
17785 "Congress could make to better secure a free culture."
17788 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><title>
17789 #: freeculture.xml:13370
17793 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
17794 #: freeculture.xml:13372
17796 "<emphasis role='strong'>Common sense</emphasis> is with the copyright "
17797 "warriors because the debate so far has been framed at the extremes—as "
17798 "a grand either/or: either property or anarchy, either total control or "
17799 "artists won't be paid. If that really is the choice, then the warriors "
17803 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
17804 #: freeculture.xml:13379
17806 "The mistake here is the error of the excluded middle. There are extremes in "
17807 "this debate, but the extremes are not all that there is. There are those who "
17808 "believe in maximal copyright—<quote>All Rights Reserved</quote>— "
17809 "and those who reject copyright—<quote>No Rights Reserved.</quote> The "
17810 "<quote>All Rights Reserved</quote> sorts believe that you should ask "
17811 "permission before you <quote>use</quote> a copyrighted work in any way. The "
17812 "<quote>No Rights Reserved</quote> sorts believe you should be able to do "
17813 "with content as you wish, regardless of whether you have permission or not."
17817 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
17818 #: freeculture.xml:13389
17820 "When the Internet was first born, its initial architecture effectively "
17821 "tilted in the <quote>no rights reserved</quote> direction. Content could be "
17822 "copied perfectly and cheaply; rights could not easily be controlled. Thus, "
17823 "regardless of anyone's desire, the effective regime of copyright under the "
17824 "original design of the Internet was <quote>no rights reserved.</quote> "
17825 "Content was <quote>taken</quote> regardless of the rights. Any rights were "
17826 "effectively unprotected."
17829 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
17830 #: freeculture.xml:13401
17832 "This initial character produced a reaction (opposite, but not quite equal) "
17833 "by copyright owners. That reaction has been the topic of this book. Through "
17834 "legislation, litigation, and changes to the network's design, copyright "
17835 "holders have been able to change the essential character of the environment "
17836 "of the original Internet. If the original architecture made the effective "
17837 "default <quote>no rights reserved,</quote> the future architecture will make "
17838 "the effective default <quote>all rights reserved.</quote> The architecture "
17839 "and law that surround the Internet's design will increasingly produce an "
17840 "environment where all use of content requires permission. The <quote>cut "
17841 "and paste</quote> world that defines the Internet today will become a "
17842 "<quote>get permission to cut and paste</quote> world that is a creator's "
17846 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
17847 #: freeculture.xml:13415
17849 "What's needed is a way to say something in the middle—neither "
17850 "<quote>all rights reserved</quote> nor <quote>no rights reserved</quote> but "
17851 "<quote>some rights reserved</quote>— and thus a way to respect "
17852 "copyrights but enable creators to free content as they see fit. In other "
17853 "words, we need a way to restore a set of freedoms that we could just take "
17854 "for granted before."
17857 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
17858 #: freeculture.xml:13424
17859 msgid "Rebuilding Freedoms Previously Presumed: Examples"
17862 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17863 #: freeculture.xml:13426
17865 "If you step back from the battle I've been describing here, you will "
17866 "recognize this problem from other contexts. Think about privacy. Before the "
17867 "Internet, most of us didn't have to worry much about data about our lives "
17868 "that we broadcast to the world. If you walked into a bookstore and browsed "
17869 "through some of the works of Karl Marx, you didn't need to worry about "
17870 "explaining your browsing habits to your neighbors or boss. The "
17871 "<quote>privacy</quote> of your browsing habits was assured."
17874 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17875 #: freeculture.xml:13436
17876 msgid "What made it assured?"
17879 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17880 #: freeculture.xml:13440
17882 "Well, if we think in terms of the modalities I described in chapter <xref "
17883 "xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"property-i\"/>, your privacy was "
17884 "assured because of an inefficient architecture for gathering data and hence "
17885 "a market constraint (cost) on anyone who wanted to gather that data. If you "
17886 "were a suspected spy for North Korea, working for the CIA, no doubt your "
17887 "privacy would not be assured. But that's because the CIA would (we hope) "
17888 "find it valuable enough to spend the thousands required to track you. But "
17889 "for most of us (again, we can hope), spying doesn't pay. The highly "
17890 "inefficient architecture of real space means we all enjoy a fairly robust "
17891 "amount of privacy. That privacy is guaranteed to us by friction. Not by law "
17892 "(there is no law protecting <quote>privacy</quote> in public places), and in "
17893 "many places, not by norms (snooping and gossip are just fun), but instead, "
17894 "by the costs that friction imposes on anyone who would want to spy."
17897 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
17898 #: freeculture.xml:13455
17902 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
17903 #: freeculture.xml:13465
17904 msgid "cookies, Internet"
17907 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17908 #: freeculture.xml:13457
17910 "Enter the Internet, where the cost of tracking browsing in particular has "
17911 "become quite tiny. If you're a customer at Amazon, then as you browse the "
17912 "pages, Amazon collects the data about what you've looked at. You know this "
17913 "because at the side of the page, there's a list of <quote>recently "
17914 "viewed</quote> pages. Now, because of the architecture of the Net and the "
17915 "function of cookies on the Net, it is easier to collect the data than "
17916 "not. The friction has disappeared, and hence any <quote>privacy</quote> "
17917 "protected by the friction disappears, too. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
17921 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17922 #: freeculture.xml:13468
17924 "Amazon, of course, is not the problem. But we might begin to worry about "
17925 "libraries. If you're one of those crazy lefties who thinks that people "
17926 "should have the <quote>right</quote> to browse in a library without the "
17927 "government knowing which books you look at (I'm one of those lefties, too), "
17928 "then this change in the technology of monitoring might concern you. If it "
17929 "becomes simple to gather and sort who does what in electronic spaces, then "
17930 "the friction-induced privacy of yesterday disappears."
17934 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
17935 #: freeculture.xml:13484
17937 "See, for example, Marc Rotenberg, <quote>Fair Information Practices and the "
17938 "Architecture of Privacy (What Larry Doesn't Get),</quote> "
17939 "<citetitle>Stanford Technology Law Review</citetitle> 1 (2001): "
17940 "par. 6–18, available at <ulink "
17941 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #72</ulink> (describing examples "
17942 "in which technology defines privacy policy). See also Jeffrey Rosen, "
17943 "<citetitle>The Naked Crowd: Reclaiming Security and Freedom in an Anxious "
17944 "Age</citetitle> (New York: Random House, 2004) (mapping tradeoffs between "
17945 "technology and privacy)."
17949 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17950 #: freeculture.xml:13478
17952 "It is this reality that explains the push of many to define "
17953 "<quote>privacy</quote> on the Internet. It is the recognition that "
17954 "technology can remove what friction before gave us that leads many to push "
17955 "for laws to do what friction did.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
17956 "And whether you're in favor of those laws or not, it is the pattern that is "
17957 "important here. We must take affirmative steps to secure a kind of freedom "
17958 "that was passively provided before. A change in technology now forces those "
17959 "who believe in privacy to affirmatively act where, before, privacy was given "
17963 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17964 #: freeculture.xml:13502
17966 "A similar story could be told about the birth of the free software "
17967 "movement. When computers with software were first made available "
17968 "commercially, the software—both the source code and the "
17969 "binaries— was free. You couldn't run a program written for a Data "
17970 "General machine on an IBM machine, so Data General and IBM didn't care much "
17971 "about controlling their software. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
17975 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
17976 #: freeculture.xml:13510
17977 msgid "Stallman, Richard"
17980 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17981 #: freeculture.xml:13512
17983 "That was the world Richard Stallman was born into, and while he was a "
17984 "researcher at MIT, he grew to love the community that developed when one was "
17985 "free to explore and tinker with the software that ran on machines. Being a "
17986 "smart sort himself, and a talented programmer, Stallman grew to depend upon "
17987 "the freedom to add to or modify other people's work."
17990 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17991 #: freeculture.xml:13520
17993 "In an academic setting, at least, that's not a terribly radical idea. In a "
17994 "math department, anyone would be free to tinker with a proof that someone "
17995 "offered. If you thought you had a better way to prove a theorem, you could "
17996 "take what someone else did and change it. In a classics department, if you "
17997 "believed a colleague's translation of a recently discovered text was flawed, "
17998 "you were free to improve it. Thus, to Stallman, it seemed obvious that you "
17999 "should be free to tinker with and improve the code that ran a machine. This, "
18000 "too, was knowledge. Why shouldn't it be open for criticism like anything "
18004 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18005 #: freeculture.xml:13532
18007 "No one answered that question. Instead, the architecture of revenue for "
18008 "computing changed. As it became possible to import programs from one system "
18009 "to another, it became economically attractive (at least in the view of some) "
18010 "to hide the code of your program. So, too, as companies started selling "
18011 "peripherals for mainframe systems. If I could just take your printer driver "
18012 "and copy it, then that would make it easier for me to sell a printer to the "
18013 "market than it was for you."
18017 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18018 #: freeculture.xml:13541
18020 "Thus, the practice of proprietary code began to spread, and by the early "
18021 "1980s, Stallman found himself surrounded by proprietary code. The world of "
18022 "free software had been erased by a change in the economics of computing. And "
18023 "as he believed, if he did nothing about it, then the freedom to change and "
18024 "share software would be fundamentally weakened."
18027 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18028 #: freeculture.xml:13549
18029 msgid "Torvalds, Linus"
18032 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18033 #: freeculture.xml:13551
18035 "Therefore, in 1984, Stallman began a project to build a free operating "
18036 "system, so that at least a strain of free software would survive. That was "
18037 "the birth of the GNU project, into which Linus Torvalds's "
18038 "<quote>Linux</quote> kernel was added to produce the GNU/Linux operating "
18039 "system. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
18040 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
18043 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18044 #: freeculture.xml:13559
18046 "Stallman's technique was to use copyright law to build a world of software "
18047 "that must be kept free. Software licensed under the Free Software "
18048 "Foundation's GPL cannot be modified and distributed unless the source code "
18049 "for that software is made available as well. Thus, anyone building upon "
18050 "GPL'd software would have to make their buildings free as well. This would "
18051 "assure, Stallman believed, that an ecology of code would develop that "
18052 "remained free for others to build upon. His fundamental goal was freedom; "
18053 "innovative creative code was a byproduct."
18056 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18057 #: freeculture.xml:13570
18059 "Stallman was thus doing for software what privacy advocates now do for "
18060 "privacy. He was seeking a way to rebuild a kind of freedom that was taken "
18061 "for granted before. Through the affirmative use of licenses that bind "
18062 "copyrighted code, Stallman was affirmatively reclaiming a space where free "
18063 "software would survive. He was actively protecting what before had been "
18064 "passively guaranteed."
18067 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18068 #: freeculture.xml:13578
18070 "Finally, consider a very recent example that more directly resonates with "
18071 "the story of this book. This is the shift in the way academic and scientific "
18072 "journals are produced."
18076 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18077 #: freeculture.xml:13586
18079 "As digital technologies develop, it is becoming obvious to many that "
18080 "printing thousands of copies of journals every month and sending them to "
18081 "libraries is perhaps not the most efficient way to distribute "
18082 "knowledge. Instead, journals are increasingly becoming electronic, and "
18083 "libraries and their users are given access to these electronic journals "
18084 "through password-protected sites. Something similar to this has been "
18085 "happening in law for almost thirty years: Lexis and Westlaw have had "
18086 "electronic versions of case reports available to subscribers to their "
18087 "service. Although a Supreme Court opinion is not copyrighted, and anyone is "
18088 "free to go to a library and read it, Lexis and Westlaw are also free to "
18089 "charge users for the privilege of gaining access to that Supreme Court "
18090 "opinion through their respective services."
18093 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18094 #: freeculture.xml:13602
18096 "There's nothing wrong in general with this, and indeed, the ability to "
18097 "charge for access to even public domain materials is a good incentive for "
18098 "people to develop new and innovative ways to spread knowledge. The law has "
18099 "agreed, which is why Lexis and Westlaw have been allowed to flourish. And if "
18100 "there's nothing wrong with selling the public domain, then there could be "
18101 "nothing wrong, in principle, with selling access to material that is not in "
18102 "the public domain."
18105 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18106 #: freeculture.xml:13611
18108 "But what if the only way to get access to social and scientific data was "
18109 "through proprietary services? What if no one had the ability to browse this "
18110 "data except by paying for a subscription?"
18113 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18114 #: freeculture.xml:13616
18116 "As many are beginning to notice, this is increasingly the reality with "
18117 "scientific journals. When these journals were distributed in paper form, "
18118 "libraries could make the journals available to anyone who had access to the "
18119 "library. Thus, patients with cancer could become cancer experts because the "
18120 "library gave them access. Or patients trying to understand the risks of a "
18121 "certain treatment could research those risks by reading all available "
18122 "articles about that treatment. This freedom was therefore a function of the "
18123 "institution of libraries (norms) and the technology of paper journals "
18124 "(architecture)—namely, that it was very hard to control access to a "
18128 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18129 #: freeculture.xml:13628
18131 "As journals become electronic, however, the publishers are demanding that "
18132 "libraries not give the general public access to the journals. This means "
18133 "that the freedoms provided by print journals in public libraries begin to "
18134 "disappear. Thus, as with privacy and with software, a changing technology "
18135 "and market shrink a freedom taken for granted before."
18138 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18139 #: freeculture.xml:13636
18141 "This shrinking freedom has led many to take affirmative steps to restore the "
18142 "freedom that has been lost. The Public Library of Science (PLoS), for "
18143 "example, is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to making scientific research "
18144 "available to anyone with a Web connection. Authors of scientific work submit "
18145 "that work to the Public Library of Science. That work is then subject to "
18146 "peer review. If accepted, the work is then deposited in a public, electronic "
18147 "archive and made permanently available for free. PLoS also sells a print "
18148 "version of its work, but the copyright for the print journal does not "
18149 "inhibit the right of anyone to redistribute the work for free. <placeholder "
18150 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
18153 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18154 #: freeculture.xml:13650
18156 "This is one of many such efforts to restore a freedom taken for granted "
18157 "before, but now threatened by changing technology and markets. There's no "
18158 "doubt that this alternative competes with the traditional publishers and "
18159 "their efforts to make money from the exclusive distribution of content. But "
18160 "competition in our tradition is presumptively a good—especially when "
18161 "it helps spread knowledge and science."
18164 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
18165 #: freeculture.xml:13662
18166 msgid "Rebuilding Free Culture: One Idea"
18169 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18170 #: freeculture.xml:13667
18172 "The same strategy could be applied to culture, as a response to the "
18173 "increasing control effected through law and technology."
18176 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18177 #: freeculture.xml:13670
18178 msgid "Stanford University"
18181 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18182 #: freeculture.xml:13672
18184 "Enter the Creative Commons. The Creative Commons is a nonprofit corporation "
18185 "established in Massachusetts, but with its home at Stanford University. Its "
18186 "aim is to build a layer of <emphasis>reasonable</emphasis> copyright on top "
18187 "of the extremes that now reign. It does this by making it easy for people to "
18188 "build upon other people's work, by making it simple for creators to express "
18189 "the freedom for others to take and build upon their work. Simple tags, tied "
18190 "to human-readable descriptions, tied to bulletproof licenses, make this "
18195 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18196 #: freeculture.xml:13683
18198 "<emphasis>Simple</emphasis>—which means without a middleman, or "
18199 "without a lawyer. By developing a free set of licenses that people can "
18200 "attach to their content, Creative Commons aims to mark a range of content "
18201 "that can easily, and reliably, be built upon. These tags are then linked to "
18202 "machine-readable versions of the license that enable computers automatically "
18203 "to identify content that can easily be shared. These three expressions "
18204 "together—a legal license, a human-readable description, and "
18205 "machine-readable tags—constitute a Creative Commons license. A "
18206 "Creative Commons license constitutes a grant of freedom to anyone who "
18207 "accesses the license, and more importantly, an expression of the ideal that "
18208 "the person associated with the license believes in something different than "
18209 "the <quote>All</quote> or <quote>No</quote> extremes. Content is marked with "
18210 "the CC mark, which does not mean that copyright is waived, but that certain "
18211 "freedoms are given."
18214 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18215 #: freeculture.xml:13701
18217 "These freedoms are beyond the freedoms promised by fair use. Their precise "
18218 "contours depend upon the choices the creator makes. The creator can choose a "
18219 "license that permits any use, so long as attribution is given. She can "
18220 "choose a license that permits only noncommercial use. She can choose a "
18221 "license that permits any use so long as the same freedoms are given to other "
18222 "uses (<quote>share and share alike</quote>). Or any use so long as no "
18223 "derivative use is made. Or any use at all within developing nations. Or any "
18224 "sampling use, so long as full copies are not made. Or lastly, any "
18228 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18229 #: freeculture.xml:13712
18231 "These choices thus establish a range of freedoms beyond the default of "
18232 "copyright law. They also enable freedoms that go beyond traditional fair "
18233 "use. And most importantly, they express these freedoms in a way that "
18234 "subsequent users can use and rely upon without the need to hire a "
18235 "lawyer. Creative Commons thus aims to build a layer of content, governed by "
18236 "a layer of reasonable copyright law, that others can build upon. Voluntary "
18237 "choice of individuals and creators will make this content available. And "
18238 "that content will in turn enable us to rebuild a public domain."
18241 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
18242 #: freeculture.xml:13733
18243 msgid "Garlick, Mia"
18246 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18247 #: freeculture.xml:13723
18249 "This is just one project among many within the Creative Commons. And of "
18250 "course, Creative Commons is not the only organization pursuing such "
18251 "freedoms. But the point that distinguishes the Creative Commons from many is "
18252 "that we are not interested only in talking about a public domain or in "
18253 "getting legislators to help build a public domain. Our aim is to build a "
18254 "movement of consumers and producers of content (<quote>content "
18255 "conducers,</quote> as attorney Mia Garlick calls them) who help build the "
18256 "public domain and, by their work, demonstrate the importance of the public "
18257 "domain to other creativity. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
18260 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18261 #: freeculture.xml:13736
18263 "The aim is not to fight the <quote>All Rights Reserved</quote> sorts. The "
18264 "aim is to complement them. The problems that the law creates for us as a "
18265 "culture are produced by insane and unintended consequences of laws written "
18266 "centuries ago, applied to a technology that only Jefferson could have "
18267 "imagined. The rules may well have made sense against a background of "
18268 "technologies from centuries ago, but they do not make sense against the "
18269 "background of digital technologies. New rules—with different freedoms, "
18270 "expressed in ways so that humans without lawyers can use them—are "
18271 "needed. Creative Commons gives people a way effectively to begin to build "
18275 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18276 #: freeculture.xml:13752
18278 "Why would creators participate in giving up total control? Some participate "
18279 "to better spread their content. Cory Doctorow, for example, is a science "
18280 "fiction author. His first novel, <citetitle>Down and Out in the Magic "
18281 "Kingdom</citetitle>, was released on-line and for free, under a Creative "
18282 "Commons license, on the same day that it went on sale in bookstores."
18285 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18286 #: freeculture.xml:13759
18288 "Why would a publisher ever agree to this? I suspect his publisher reasoned "
18289 "like this: There are two groups of people out there: (1) those who will buy "
18290 "Cory's book whether or not it's on the Internet, and (2) those who may never "
18291 "hear of Cory's book, if it isn't made available for free on the "
18292 "Internet. Some part of (1) will download Cory's book instead of buying "
18293 "it. Call them bad-(1)s. Some part of (2) will download Cory's book, like "
18294 "it, and then decide to buy it. Call them (2)-goods. If there are more "
18295 "(2)-goods than bad-(1)s, the strategy of releasing Cory's book free on-line "
18296 "will probably <emphasis>increase</emphasis> sales of Cory's book."
18299 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18300 #: freeculture.xml:13771
18302 "Indeed, the experience of his publisher clearly supports that conclusion. "
18303 "The book's first printing was exhausted months before the publisher had "
18304 "expected. This first novel of a science fiction author was a total success."
18307 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18308 #: freeculture.xml:13776
18309 msgid "Free for All (Wayner)"
18312 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18313 #: freeculture.xml:13777
18314 msgid "Wayner, Peter"
18318 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18319 #: freeculture.xml:13779
18321 "The idea that free content might increase the value of nonfree content was "
18322 "confirmed by the experience of another author. Peter Wayner, who wrote a "
18323 "book about the free software movement titled <citetitle>Free for "
18324 "All</citetitle>, made an electronic version of his book free on-line under a "
18325 "Creative Commons license after the book went out of print. He then monitored "
18326 "used book store prices for the book. As predicted, as the number of "
18327 "downloads increased, the used book price for his book increased, as well."
18330 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18331 #: freeculture.xml:13790
18332 msgid "Public Enemy"
18335 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18336 #: freeculture.xml:13791
18340 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18341 #: freeculture.xml:13792
18342 msgid "Leaphart, Walter"
18346 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
18347 #: freeculture.xml:13809
18349 "<citetitle>Willful Infringement: A Report from the Front Lines of the Real "
18350 "Culture Wars</citetitle> (2003), produced by Jed Horovitz, directed by Greg "
18351 "Hittelman, a Fiat Lucre production, available at <ulink "
18352 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #72</ulink>."
18355 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18356 #: freeculture.xml:13794
18358 "These are examples of using the Commons to better spread proprietary "
18359 "content. I believe that is a wonderful and common use of the Commons. There "
18360 "are others who use Creative Commons licenses for other reasons. Many who use "
18361 "the <quote>sampling license</quote> do so because anything else would be "
18362 "hypocritical. The sampling license says that others are free, for commercial "
18363 "or noncommercial purposes, to sample content from the licensed work; they "
18364 "are just not free to make full copies of the licensed work available to "
18365 "others. This is consistent with their own art—they, too, sample from "
18366 "others. Because the <emphasis>legal</emphasis> costs of sampling are so high "
18367 "(Walter Leaphart, manager of the rap group Public Enemy, which was born "
18368 "sampling the music of others, has stated that he does not "
18369 "<quote>allow</quote> Public Enemy to sample anymore, because the legal costs "
18370 "are so high<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>), these artists release "
18371 "into the creative environment content that others can build upon, so that "
18372 "their form of creativity might grow."
18375 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18376 #: freeculture.xml:13818
18378 "Finally, there are many who mark their content with a Creative Commons "
18379 "license just because they want to express to others the importance of "
18380 "balance in this debate. If you just go along with the system as it is, you "
18381 "are effectively saying you believe in the <quote>All Rights Reserved</quote> "
18382 "model. Good for you, but many do not. Many believe that however appropriate "
18383 "that rule is for Hollywood and freaks, it is not an appropriate description "
18384 "of how most creators view the rights associated with their content. The "
18385 "Creative Commons license expresses this notion of <quote>Some Rights "
18386 "Reserved,</quote> and gives many the chance to say it to others."
18390 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18391 #: freeculture.xml:13830
18393 "In the first six months of the Creative Commons experiment, over 1 million "
18394 "objects were licensed with these free-culture licenses. The next step is "
18395 "partnerships with middleware content providers to help them build into their "
18396 "technologies simple ways for users to mark their content with Creative "
18397 "Commons freedoms. Then the next step is to watch and celebrate creators who "
18398 "build content based upon content set free."
18401 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18402 #: freeculture.xml:13840
18404 "These are first steps to rebuilding a public domain. They are not mere "
18405 "arguments; they are action. Building a public domain is the first step to "
18406 "showing people how important that domain is to creativity and "
18407 "innovation. Creative Commons relies upon voluntary steps to achieve this "
18408 "rebuilding. They will lead to a world in which more than voluntary steps are "
18412 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18413 #: freeculture.xml:13848
18415 "Creative Commons is just one example of voluntary efforts by individuals and "
18416 "creators to change the mix of rights that now govern the creative field. The "
18417 "project does not compete with copyright; it complements it. Its aim is not "
18418 "to defeat the rights of authors, but to make it easier for authors and "
18419 "creators to exercise their rights more flexibly and cheaply. That "
18420 "difference, we believe, will enable creativity to spread more easily."
18423 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><title>
18424 #: freeculture.xml:13862
18428 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
18429 #: freeculture.xml:13864
18431 "<emphasis role='strong'>We will</emphasis> not reclaim a free culture by "
18432 "individual action alone. It will also take important reforms of laws. We "
18433 "have a long way to go before the politicians will listen to these ideas and "
18434 "implement these reforms. But that also means that we have time to build "
18435 "awareness around the changes that we need."
18438 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
18439 #: freeculture.xml:13871
18441 "In this chapter, I outline five kinds of changes: four that are general, and "
18442 "one that's specific to the most heated battle of the day, music. Each is a "
18443 "step, not an end. But any of these steps would carry us a long way to our "
18447 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
18448 #: freeculture.xml:13878
18449 msgid "1. More Formalities"
18452 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18453 #: freeculture.xml:13880
18455 "If you buy a house, you have to record the sale in a deed. If you buy land "
18456 "upon which to build a house, you have to record the purchase in a deed. If "
18457 "you buy a car, you get a bill of sale and register the car. If you buy an "
18458 "airplane ticket, it has your name on it."
18462 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18463 #: freeculture.xml:13887
18465 "These are all formalities associated with property. They are requirements "
18466 "that we all must bear if we want our property to be protected."
18469 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18470 #: freeculture.xml:13892
18472 "In contrast, under current copyright law, you automatically get a copyright, "
18473 "regardless of whether you comply with any formality. You don't have to "
18474 "register. You don't even have to mark your content. The default is control, "
18475 "and <quote>formalities</quote> are banished."
18478 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18479 #: freeculture.xml:13898
18483 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18484 #: freeculture.xml:13901
18486 "As I suggested in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
18487 "linkend=\"property-i\"/>, the motivation to abolish formalities was a good "
18488 "one. In the world before digital technologies, formalities imposed a burden "
18489 "on copyright holders without much benefit. Thus, it was progress when the "
18490 "law relaxed the formal requirements that a copyright owner must bear to "
18491 "protect and secure his work. Those formalities were getting in the way."
18494 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18495 #: freeculture.xml:13910
18497 "But the Internet changes all this. Formalities today need not be a "
18498 "burden. Rather, the world without formalities is the world that burdens "
18499 "creativity. Today, there is no simple way to know who owns what, or with "
18500 "whom one must deal in order to use or build upon the creative work of "
18501 "others. There are no records, there is no system to trace— there is no "
18502 "simple way to know how to get permission. Yet given the massive increase in "
18503 "the scope of copyright's rule, getting permission is a necessary step for "
18504 "any work that builds upon our past. And thus, the <emphasis>lack</emphasis> "
18505 "of formalities forces many into silence where they otherwise could speak."
18509 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
18510 #: freeculture.xml:13924
18512 "The proposal I am advancing here would apply to American works only. "
18513 "Obviously, I believe it would be beneficial for the same idea to be adopted "
18514 "by other countries as well."
18517 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18518 #: freeculture.xml:13922
18520 "The law should therefore change this requirement<placeholder "
18521 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>—but it should not change it by going back "
18522 "to the old, broken system. We should require formalities, but we should "
18523 "establish a system that will create the incentives to minimize the burden of "
18524 "these formalities."
18527 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18528 #: freeculture.xml:13932
18530 "The important formalities are three: marking copyrighted work, registering "
18531 "copyrights, and renewing the claim to copyright. Traditionally, the first of "
18532 "these three was something the copyright owner did; the second two were "
18533 "something the government did. But a revised system of formalities would "
18534 "banish the government from the process, except for the sole purpose of "
18535 "approving standards developed by others."
18538 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><title>
18539 #: freeculture.xml:13944
18540 msgid "REGISTRATION AND RENEWAL"
18543 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
18544 #: freeculture.xml:13946
18546 "Under the old system, a copyright owner had to file a registration with the "
18547 "Copyright Office to register or renew a copyright. When filing that "
18548 "registration, the copyright owner paid a fee. As with most government "
18549 "agencies, the Copyright Office had little incentive to minimize the burden "
18550 "of registration; it also had little incentive to minimize the fee. And as "
18551 "the Copyright Office is not a main target of government policymaking, the "
18552 "office has historically been terribly underfunded. Thus, when people who "
18553 "know something about the process hear this idea about formalities, their "
18554 "first reaction is panic—nothing could be worse than forcing people to "
18555 "deal with the mess that is the Copyright Office."
18558 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
18559 #: freeculture.xml:13959
18561 "Yet it is always astonishing to me that we, who come from a tradition of "
18562 "extraordinary innovation in governmental design, can no longer think "
18563 "innovatively about how governmental functions can be designed. Just because "
18564 "there is a public purpose to a government role, it doesn't follow that the "
18565 "government must actually administer the role. Instead, we should be creating "
18566 "incentives for private parties to serve the public, subject to standards "
18567 "that the government sets."
18570 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
18571 #: freeculture.xml:13968
18573 "In the context of registration, one obvious model is the Internet. There "
18574 "are at least 32 million Web sites registered around the world. Domain name "
18575 "owners for these Web sites have to pay a fee to keep their registration "
18576 "alive. In the main top-level domains (.com, .org, .net), there is a central "
18577 "registry. The actual registrations are, however, performed by many competing "
18578 "registrars. That competition drives the cost of registering down, and more "
18579 "importantly, it drives the ease with which registration occurs up."
18583 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
18584 #: freeculture.xml:13978
18586 "We should adopt a similar model for the registration and renewal of "
18587 "copyrights. The Copyright Office may well serve as the central registry, but "
18588 "it should not be in the registrar business. Instead, it should establish a "
18589 "database, and a set of standards for registrars. It should approve "
18590 "registrars that meet its standards. Those registrars would then compete with "
18591 "one another to deliver the cheapest and simplest systems for registering and "
18592 "renewing copyrights. That competition would substantially lower the burden "
18593 "of this formality—while producing a database of registrations that "
18594 "would facilitate the licensing of content."
18597 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><title>
18598 #: freeculture.xml:13993
18602 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
18603 #: freeculture.xml:13995
18605 "It used to be that the failure to include a copyright notice on a creative "
18606 "work meant that the copyright was forfeited. That was a harsh punishment for "
18607 "failing to comply with a regulatory rule—akin to imposing the death "
18608 "penalty for a parking ticket in the world of creative rights. Here again, "
18609 "there is no reason that a marking requirement needs to be enforced in this "
18610 "way. And more importantly, there is no reason a marking requirement needs to "
18611 "be enforced uniformly across all media."
18614 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
18615 #: freeculture.xml:14005
18617 "The aim of marking is to signal to the public that this work is copyrighted "
18618 "and that the author wants to enforce his rights. The mark also makes it easy "
18619 "to locate a copyright owner to secure permission to use the work."
18622 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
18623 #: freeculture.xml:14011
18625 "One of the problems the copyright system confronted early on was that "
18626 "different copyrighted works had to be differently marked. It wasn't clear "
18627 "how or where a statue was to be marked, or a record, or a film. A new "
18628 "marking requirement could solve these problems by recognizing the "
18629 "differences in media, and by allowing the system of marking to evolve as "
18630 "technologies enable it to. The system could enable a special signal from the "
18631 "failure to mark—not the loss of the copyright, but the loss of the "
18632 "right to punish someone for failing to get permission first."
18636 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para><footnote><para>
18637 #: freeculture.xml:14028
18639 "There would be a complication with derivative works that I have not solved "
18640 "here. In my view, the law of derivatives creates a more complicated system "
18641 "than is justified by the marginal incentive it creates."
18645 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
18646 #: freeculture.xml:14021
18648 "Let's start with the last point. If a copyright owner allows his work to be "
18649 "published without a copyright notice, the consequence of that failure need "
18650 "not be that the copyright is lost. The consequence could instead be that "
18651 "anyone has the right to use this work, until the copyright owner complains "
18652 "and demonstrates that it is his work and he doesn't give "
18653 "permission.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The meaning of an "
18654 "unmarked work would therefore be <quote>use unless someone "
18655 "complains.</quote> If someone does complain, then the obligation would be to "
18656 "stop using the work in any new work from then on though no penalty would "
18657 "attach for existing uses. This would create a strong incentive for "
18658 "copyright owners to mark their work."
18661 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
18662 #: freeculture.xml:14041
18664 "That in turn raises the question about how work should best be marked. Here "
18665 "again, the system needs to adjust as the technologies evolve. The best way "
18666 "to ensure that the system evolves is to limit the Copyright Office's role to "
18667 "that of approving standards for marking content that have been crafted "
18671 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
18672 #: freeculture.xml:14048
18674 "For example, if a recording industry association devises a method for "
18675 "marking CDs, it would propose that to the Copyright Office. The Copyright "
18676 "Office would hold a hearing, at which other proposals could be made. The "
18677 "Copyright Office would then select the proposal that it judged preferable, "
18678 "and it would base that choice <emphasis>solely</emphasis> upon the "
18679 "consideration of which method could best be integrated into the registration "
18680 "and renewal system. We would not count on the government to innovate; but we "
18681 "would count on the government to keep the product of innovation in line with "
18682 "its other important functions."
18685 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
18686 #: freeculture.xml:14060
18688 "Finally, marking content clearly would simplify registration requirements. "
18689 "If photographs were marked by author and year, there would be little reason "
18690 "not to allow a photographer to reregister, for example, all photographs "
18691 "taken in a particular year in one quick step. The aim of the formality is "
18692 "not to burden the creator; the system itself should be kept as simple as "
18696 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
18697 #: freeculture.xml:14068
18699 "The objective of formalities is to make things clear. The existing system "
18700 "does nothing to make things clear. Indeed, it seems designed to make things "
18704 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
18705 #: freeculture.xml:14073
18707 "If formalities such as registration were reinstated, one of the most "
18708 "difficult aspects of relying upon the public domain would be removed. It "
18709 "would be simple to identify what content is presumptively free; it would be "
18710 "simple to identify who controls the rights for a particular kind of content; "
18711 "it would be simple to assert those rights, and to renew that assertion at "
18712 "the appropriate time."
18715 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
18716 #: freeculture.xml:14085
18717 msgid "2. Shorter Terms"
18720 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18721 #: freeculture.xml:14087
18723 "The term of copyright has gone from fourteen years to ninety-five years for "
18724 "corporate authors, and life of the author plus seventy years for natural "
18729 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
18730 #: freeculture.xml:14100
18732 "<quote>A Radical Rethink,</quote> <citetitle>Economist</citetitle>, 366:8308 "
18733 "(25 January 2003): 15, available at <ulink "
18734 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #74</ulink>."
18737 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18738 #: freeculture.xml:14092
18740 "In <citetitle>The Future of Ideas</citetitle>, I proposed a "
18741 "seventy-five-year term, granted in five-year increments with a requirement "
18742 "of renewal every five years. That seemed radical enough at the time. But "
18743 "after we lost <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
18744 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, the proposals became even more "
18745 "radical. <citetitle>The Economist</citetitle> endorsed a proposal for a "
18746 "fourteen-year copyright term.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
18747 "Others have proposed tying the term to the term for patents."
18750 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18751 #: freeculture.xml:14107
18753 "I agree with those who believe that we need a radical change in copyright's "
18754 "term. But whether fourteen years or seventy-five, there are four principles "
18755 "that are important to keep in mind about copyright terms."
18759 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
18760 #: freeculture.xml:14115
18762 "<emphasis>Keep it short:</emphasis> The term should be as long as necessary "
18763 "to give incentives to create, but no longer. If it were tied to very strong "
18764 "protections for authors (so authors were able to reclaim rights from "
18765 "publishers), rights to the same work (not derivative works) might be "
18766 "extended further. The key is not to tie the work up with legal regulations "
18767 "when it no longer benefits an author."
18772 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
18773 #: freeculture.xml:14124
18775 "<emphasis>Keep it simple:</emphasis> The line between the public domain and "
18776 "protected content must be kept clear. Lawyers like the fuzziness of "
18777 "<quote>fair use,</quote> and the distinction between <quote>ideas</quote> "
18778 "and <quote>expression.</quote> That kind of law gives them lots of work. But "
18779 "our framers had a simpler idea in mind: protected versus unprotected. The "
18780 "value of short terms is that there is little need to build exceptions into "
18781 "copyright when the term itself is kept short. A clear and active "
18782 "<quote>lawyer-free zone</quote> makes the complexities of <quote>fair "
18783 "use</quote> and <quote>idea/expression</quote> less necessary to navigate."
18787 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para><footnote><para>
18788 #: freeculture.xml:14145
18790 "Department of Veterans Affairs, Veteran's Application for Compensation "
18791 "and/or Pension, VA Form 21-526 (OMB Approved No. 2900-0001), available at "
18792 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #75</ulink>."
18795 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para><indexterm><primary>
18796 #: freeculture.xml:14153
18797 msgid "veterans' pensions"
18800 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
18801 #: freeculture.xml:14137
18803 "<emphasis>Keep it alive:</emphasis> Copyright should have to be renewed. "
18804 "Especially if the maximum term is long, the copyright owner should be "
18805 "required to signal periodically that he wants the protection continued. This "
18806 "need not be an onerous burden, but there is no reason this monopoly "
18807 "protection has to be granted for free. On average, it takes ninety minutes "
18808 "for a veteran to apply for a pension.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
18809 "id=\"0\"/> If we make veterans suffer that burden, I don't see why we "
18810 "couldn't require authors to spend ten minutes every fifty years to file a "
18811 "single form. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
18815 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
18816 #: freeculture.xml:14157
18818 "<emphasis>Keep it prospective:</emphasis> Whatever the term of copyright "
18819 "should be, the clearest lesson that economists teach is that a term once "
18820 "given should not be extended. It might have been a mistake in 1923 for the "
18821 "law to offer authors only a fifty-six-year term. I don't think so, but it's "
18822 "possible. If it was a mistake, then the consequence was that we got fewer "
18823 "authors to create in 1923 than we otherwise would have. But we can't correct "
18824 "that mistake today by increasing the term. No matter what we do today, we "
18825 "will not increase the number of authors who wrote in 1923. Of course, we can "
18826 "increase the reward that those who write now get (or alternatively, increase "
18827 "the copyright burden that smothers many works that are today invisible). But "
18828 "increasing their reward will not increase their creativity in 1923. What's "
18829 "not done is not done, and there's nothing we can do about that now."
18832 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18833 #: freeculture.xml:14173
18835 "These changes together should produce an <emphasis>average</emphasis> "
18836 "copyright term that is much shorter than the current term. Until 1976, the "
18837 "average term was just 32.2 years. We should be aiming for the same."
18840 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18841 #: freeculture.xml:14179
18843 "No doubt the extremists will call these ideas <quote>radical.</quote> (After "
18844 "all, I call them <quote>extremists.</quote>) But again, the term I "
18845 "recommended was longer than the term under Richard Nixon. How "
18846 "<quote>radical</quote> can it be to ask for a more generous copyright law "
18847 "than Richard Nixon presided over?"
18850 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
18851 #: freeculture.xml:14189
18852 msgid "3. Free Use Vs. Fair Use"
18855 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18856 #: freeculture.xml:14196
18858 "As I observed at the beginning of this book, property law originally granted "
18859 "property owners the right to control their property from the ground to the "
18860 "heavens. The airplane came along. The scope of property rights quickly "
18861 "changed. There was no fuss, no constitutional challenge. It made no sense "
18862 "anymore to grant that much control, given the emergence of that new "
18866 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18867 #: freeculture.xml:14204
18869 "Our Constitution gives Congress the power to give authors <quote>exclusive "
18870 "right</quote> to <quote>their writings.</quote> Congress has given authors "
18871 "an exclusive right to <quote>their writings</quote> plus any derivative "
18872 "writings (made by others) that are sufficiently close to the author's "
18873 "original work. Thus, if I write a book, and you base a movie on that book, I "
18874 "have the power to deny you the right to release that movie, even though that "
18875 "movie is not <quote>my writing.</quote>"
18879 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
18880 #: freeculture.xml:14217
18882 "Benjamin Kaplan, <citetitle>An Unhurried View of Copyright</citetitle> (New "
18883 "York: Columbia University Press, 1967), 32."
18886 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
18887 #: freeculture.xml:14223
18888 msgid "Kaplan, Benjamin"
18891 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18892 #: freeculture.xml:14213
18894 "Congress granted the beginnings of this right in 1870, when it expanded the "
18895 "exclusive right of copyright to include a right to control translations and "
18896 "dramatizations of a work.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The "
18897 "courts have expanded it slowly through judicial interpretation ever "
18898 "since. This expansion has been commented upon by one of the law's greatest "
18899 "judges, Judge Benjamin Kaplan. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
18903 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
18904 #: freeculture.xml:14231
18908 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><blockquote><para>
18909 #: freeculture.xml:14227
18911 "So inured have we become to the extension of the monopoly to a large range "
18912 "of so-called derivative works, that we no longer sense the oddity of "
18913 "accepting such an enlargement of copyright while yet intoning the "
18914 "abracadabra of idea and expression.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
18917 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18918 #: freeculture.xml:14236
18920 "I think it's time to recognize that there are airplanes in this field and "
18921 "the expansiveness of these rights of derivative use no longer make "
18922 "sense. More precisely, they don't make sense for the period of time that a "
18923 "copyright runs. And they don't make sense as an amorphous grant. Consider "
18924 "each limitation in turn."
18927 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18928 #: freeculture.xml:14243
18930 "<emphasis>Term:</emphasis> If Congress wants to grant a derivative right, "
18931 "then that right should be for a much shorter term. It makes sense to protect "
18932 "John Grisham's right to sell the movie rights to his latest novel (or at "
18933 "least I'm willing to assume it does); but it does not make sense for that "
18934 "right to run for the same term as the underlying copyright. The derivative "
18935 "right could be important in inducing creativity; it is not important long "
18936 "after the creative work is done. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
18939 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18940 #: freeculture.xml:14256
18942 "<emphasis>Scope:</emphasis> Likewise should the scope of derivative rights "
18943 "be narrowed. Again, there are some cases in which derivative rights are "
18944 "important. Those should be specified. But the law should draw clear lines "
18945 "around regulated and unregulated uses of copyrighted material. When all "
18946 "<quote>reuse</quote> of creative material was within the control of "
18947 "businesses, perhaps it made sense to require lawyers to negotiate the "
18948 "lines. It no longer makes sense for lawyers to negotiate the lines. Think "
18949 "about all the creative possibilities that digital technologies enable; now "
18950 "imagine pouring molasses into the machines. That's what this general "
18951 "requirement of permission does to the creative process. Smothers it."
18954 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18955 #: freeculture.xml:14270
18957 "This was the point that Alben made when describing the making of the Clint "
18958 "Eastwood CD. While it makes sense to require negotiation for foreseeable "
18959 "derivative rights—turning a book into a movie, or a poem into a "
18960 "musical score—it doesn't make sense to require negotiation for the "
18961 "unforeseeable. Here, a statutory right would make much more sense."
18964 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
18965 #: freeculture.xml:14286
18966 msgid "Goldstein, Paul"
18969 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
18970 #: freeculture.xml:14284
18972 "Paul Goldstein, <citetitle>Copyright's Highway: From Gutenberg to the "
18973 "Celestial Jukebox</citetitle> (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003), "
18974 "187–216. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
18977 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18978 #: freeculture.xml:14278
18980 "In each of these cases, the law should mark the uses that are protected, and "
18981 "the presumption should be that other uses are not protected. This is the "
18982 "reverse of the recommendation of my colleague Paul Goldstein.<placeholder "
18983 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> His view is that the law should be written so "
18984 "that expanded protections follow expanded uses."
18987 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18988 #: freeculture.xml:14292
18990 "Goldstein's analysis would make perfect sense if the cost of the legal "
18991 "system were small. But as we are currently seeing in the context of the "
18992 "Internet, the uncertainty about the scope of protection, and the incentives "
18993 "to protect existing architectures of revenue, combined with a strong "
18994 "copyright, weaken the process of innovation."
18998 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18999 #: freeculture.xml:14299
19001 "The law could remedy this problem either by removing protection beyond the "
19002 "part explicitly drawn or by granting reuse rights upon certain statutory "
19003 "conditions. Either way, the effect would be to free a great deal of culture "
19004 "to others to cultivate. And under a statutory rights regime, that reuse "
19005 "would earn artists more income."
19008 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
19009 #: freeculture.xml:14309
19010 msgid "4. Liberate the Music—Again"
19013 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19014 #: freeculture.xml:14311
19016 "The battle that got this whole war going was about music, so it wouldn't be "
19017 "fair to end this book without addressing the issue that is, to most people, "
19018 "most pressing—music. There is no other policy issue that better "
19019 "teaches the lessons of this book than the battles around the sharing of "
19023 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19024 #: freeculture.xml:14318
19026 "The appeal of file-sharing music was the crack cocaine of the Internet's "
19027 "growth. It drove demand for access to the Internet more powerfully than any "
19028 "other single application. It was the Internet's killer app—possibly in "
19029 "two senses of that word. It no doubt was the application that drove demand "
19030 "for bandwidth. It may well be the application that drives demand for "
19031 "regulations that in the end kill innovation on the network."
19034 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19035 #: freeculture.xml:14327
19037 "The aim of copyright, with respect to content in general and music in "
19038 "particular, is to create the incentives for music to be composed, performed, "
19039 "and, most importantly, spread. The law does this by giving an exclusive "
19040 "right to a composer to control public performances of his work, and to a "
19041 "performing artist to control copies of her performance."
19044 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19045 #: freeculture.xml:14334
19047 "File-sharing networks complicate this model by enabling the spread of "
19048 "content for which the performer has not been paid. But of course, that's not "
19049 "all the file-sharing networks do. As I described in chapter <xref "
19050 "xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"piracy\"/>, they enable four "
19051 "different kinds of sharing:"
19055 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
19056 #: freeculture.xml:14343
19058 "There are some who are using sharing networks as substitutes for purchasing "
19063 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
19064 #: freeculture.xml:14348
19066 "There are also some who are using sharing networks to sample, on the way to "
19072 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
19073 #: freeculture.xml:14354
19075 "There are many who are using file-sharing networks to get access to content "
19076 "that is no longer sold but is still under copyright or that would have been "
19077 "too cumbersome to buy off the Net."
19081 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
19082 #: freeculture.xml:14360
19084 "There are many who are using file-sharing networks to get access to content "
19085 "that is not copyrighted or to get access that the copyright owner plainly "
19089 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19090 #: freeculture.xml:14366
19092 "Any reform of the law needs to keep these different uses in focus. It must "
19093 "avoid burdening type D even if it aims to eliminate type A. The eagerness "
19094 "with which the law aims to eliminate type A, moreover, should depend upon "
19095 "the magnitude of type B. As with VCRs, if the net effect of sharing is "
19096 "actually not very harmful, the need for regulation is significantly "
19100 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19101 #: freeculture.xml:14374
19103 "As I said in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
19104 "linkend=\"piracy\"/>, the actual harm caused by sharing is controversial. "
19105 "For the purposes of this chapter, however, I assume the harm is real. I "
19106 "assume, in other words, that type A sharing is significantly greater than "
19107 "type B, and is the dominant use of sharing networks."
19110 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19111 #: freeculture.xml:14382
19113 "Nonetheless, there is a crucial fact about the current technological context "
19114 "that we must keep in mind if we are to understand how the law should "
19118 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19119 #: freeculture.xml:14387
19121 "Today, file sharing is addictive. In ten years, it won't be. It is addictive "
19122 "today because it is the easiest way to gain access to a broad range of "
19123 "content. It won't be the easiest way to get access to a broad range of "
19124 "content in ten years. Today, access to the Internet is cumbersome and "
19125 "slow—we in the United States are lucky to have broadband service at "
19126 "1.5 MBs, and very rarely do we get service at that speed both up and "
19127 "down. Although wireless access is growing, most of us still get access "
19128 "across wires. Most only gain access through a machine with a keyboard. The "
19129 "idea of the always on, always connected Internet is mainly just an idea."
19133 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19134 #: freeculture.xml:14399
19136 "But it will become a reality, and that means the way we get access to the "
19137 "Internet today is a technology in transition. Policy makers should not make "
19138 "policy on the basis of technology in transition. They should make policy on "
19139 "the basis of where the technology is going. The question should not be, how "
19140 "should the law regulate sharing in this world? The question should be, what "
19141 "law will we require when the network becomes the network it is clearly "
19142 "becoming? That network is one in which every machine with electricity is "
19143 "essentially on the Net; where everywhere you are—except maybe the "
19144 "desert or the Rockies—you can instantaneously be connected to the "
19145 "Internet. Imagine the Internet as ubiquitous as the best cell-phone service, "
19146 "where with the flip of a device, you are connected."
19149 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
19150 #: freeculture.xml:14413
19151 msgid "cell phones, music streamed over"
19155 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
19156 #: freeculture.xml:14433
19158 "See, for example, <quote>Music Media Watch,</quote> The J@pan "
19159 "Inc. Newsletter, 3 April 2002, available at <ulink "
19160 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #76</ulink>."
19163 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19164 #: freeculture.xml:14415
19166 "In that world, it will be extremely easy to connect to services that give "
19167 "you access to content on the fly—such as Internet radio, content that "
19168 "is streamed to the user when the user demands. Here, then, is the critical "
19169 "point: When it is <emphasis>extremely</emphasis> easy to connect to services "
19170 "that give access to content, it will be <emphasis>easier</emphasis> to "
19171 "connect to services that give you access to content than it will be to "
19172 "download and store content <emphasis>on the many devices you will have for "
19173 "playing content</emphasis>. It will be easier, in other words, to subscribe "
19174 "than it will be to be a database manager, as everyone in the "
19175 "download-sharing world of Napster-like technologies essentially is. Content "
19176 "services will compete with content sharing, even if the services charge "
19177 "money for the content they give access to. Already cell-phone services in "
19178 "Japan offer music (for a fee) streamed over cell phones (enhanced with plugs "
19179 "for headphones). The Japanese are paying for this content even though "
19180 "<quote>free</quote> content is available in the form of MP3s across the "
19181 "Web.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
19185 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19186 #: freeculture.xml:14440
19188 "This point about the future is meant to suggest a perspective on the "
19189 "present: It is emphatically temporary. The <quote>problem</quote> with file "
19190 "sharing—to the extent there is a real problem—is a problem that "
19191 "will increasingly disappear as it becomes easier to connect to the "
19192 "Internet. And thus it is an extraordinary mistake for policy makers today "
19193 "to be <quote>solving</quote> this problem in light of a technology that will "
19194 "be gone tomorrow. The question should not be how to regulate the Internet "
19195 "to eliminate file sharing (the Net will evolve that problem away). The "
19196 "question instead should be how to assure that artists get paid, during this "
19197 "transition between twentieth-century models for doing business and "
19198 "twenty-first-century technologies."
19201 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19202 #: freeculture.xml:14456
19204 "The answer begins with recognizing that there are different "
19205 "<quote>problems</quote> here to solve. Let's start with type D "
19206 "content—uncopyrighted content or copyrighted content that the artist "
19207 "wants shared. The <quote>problem</quote> with this content is to make sure "
19208 "that the technology that would enable this kind of sharing is not rendered "
19209 "illegal. You can think of it this way: Pay phones are used to deliver ransom "
19210 "demands, no doubt. But there are many who need to use pay phones who have "
19211 "nothing to do with ransoms. It would be wrong to ban pay phones in order to "
19212 "eliminate kidnapping."
19215 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19216 #: freeculture.xml:14467
19218 "Type C content raises a different <quote>problem.</quote> This is content "
19219 "that was, at one time, published and is no longer available. It may be "
19220 "unavailable because the artist is no longer valuable enough for the record "
19221 "label he signed with to carry his work. Or it may be unavailable because the "
19222 "work is forgotten. Either way, the aim of the law should be to facilitate "
19223 "the access to this content, ideally in a way that returns something to the "
19227 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19228 #: freeculture.xml:14480
19230 "Again, the model here is the used book store. Once a book goes out of print, "
19231 "it may still be available in libraries and used book stores. But libraries "
19232 "and used book stores don't pay the copyright owner when someone reads or "
19233 "buys an out-of-print book. That makes total sense, of course, since any "
19234 "other system would be so burdensome as to eliminate the possibility of used "
19235 "book stores' existing. But from the author's perspective, this "
19236 "<quote>sharing</quote> of his content without his being compensated is less "
19240 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19241 #: freeculture.xml:14490
19243 "The model of used book stores suggests that the law could simply deem "
19244 "out-of-print music fair game. If the publisher does not make copies of the "
19245 "music available for sale, then commercial and noncommercial providers would "
19246 "be free, under this rule, to <quote>share</quote> that content, even though "
19247 "the sharing involved making a copy. The copy here would be incidental to the "
19248 "trade; in a context where commercial publishing has ended, trading music "
19249 "should be as free as trading books."
19253 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19254 #: freeculture.xml:14501
19256 "Alternatively, the law could create a statutory license that would ensure "
19257 "that artists get something from the trade of their work. For example, if the "
19258 "law set a low statutory rate for the commercial sharing of content that was "
19259 "not offered for sale by a commercial publisher, and if that rate were "
19260 "automatically transferred to a trust for the benefit of the artist, then "
19261 "businesses could develop around the idea of trading this content, and "
19262 "artists would benefit from this trade."
19265 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19266 #: freeculture.xml:14511
19268 "This system would also create an incentive for publishers to keep works "
19269 "available commercially. Works that are available commercially would not be "
19270 "subject to this license. Thus, publishers could protect the right to charge "
19271 "whatever they want for content if they kept the work commercially "
19272 "available. But if they don't keep it available, and instead, the computer "
19273 "hard disks of fans around the world keep it alive, then any royalty owed for "
19274 "such copying should be much less than the amount owed a commercial "
19278 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19279 #: freeculture.xml:14521
19281 "The hard case is content of types A and B, and again, this case is hard only "
19282 "because the extent of the problem will change over time, as the technologies "
19283 "for gaining access to content change. The law's solution should be as "
19284 "flexible as the problem is, understanding that we are in the middle of a "
19285 "radical transformation in the technology for delivering and accessing "
19289 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19290 #: freeculture.xml:14529
19292 "So here's a solution that will at first seem very strange to both sides in "
19293 "this war, but which upon reflection, I suggest, should make some sense."
19296 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19297 #: freeculture.xml:14533
19299 "Stripped of the rhetoric about the sanctity of property, the basic claim of "
19300 "the content industry is this: A new technology (the Internet) has harmed a "
19301 "set of rights that secure copyright. If those rights are to be protected, "
19302 "then the content industry should be compensated for that harm. Just as the "
19303 "technology of tobacco harmed the health of millions of Americans, or the "
19304 "technology of asbestos caused grave illness to thousands of miners, so, too, "
19305 "has the technology of digital networks harmed the interests of the content "
19310 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19311 #: freeculture.xml:14544
19313 "I love the Internet, and so I don't like likening it to tobacco or "
19314 "asbestos. But the analogy is a fair one from the perspective of the law. "
19315 "And it suggests a fair response: Rather than seeking to destroy the "
19316 "Internet, or the p2p technologies that are currently harming content "
19317 "providers on the Internet, we should find a relatively simple way to "
19318 "compensate those who are harmed."
19321 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
19322 #: freeculture.xml:14593
19323 msgid "Fisher, William"
19326 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
19327 #: freeculture.xml:14595 freeculture.xml:14608
19328 msgid "Promises to Keep (Fisher)"
19331 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
19332 #: freeculture.xml:14556
19334 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> William Fisher, "
19335 "<citetitle>Digital Music: Problems and Possibilities</citetitle> (last "
19336 "revised: 10 October 2000), available at <ulink "
19337 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #77</ulink>; William Fisher, "
19338 "<citetitle>Promises to Keep: Technology, Law, and the Future of "
19339 "Entertainment</citetitle> (forthcoming) (Stanford: Stanford University "
19340 "Press, 2004), ch. 6, available at <ulink "
19341 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #78</ulink>. Professor Netanel "
19342 "has proposed a related idea that would exempt noncommercial sharing from the "
19343 "reach of copyright and would establish compensation to artists to balance "
19344 "any loss. See Neil Weinstock Netanel, <quote>Impose a Noncommercial Use Levy "
19345 "to Allow Free P2P File Sharing,</quote> available at <ulink "
19346 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #79</ulink>. For other proposals, "
19347 "see Lawrence Lessig, <quote>Who's Holding Back Broadband?</quote> "
19348 "<citetitle>Washington Post</citetitle>, 8 January 2002, A17; Philip "
19349 "S. Corwin on behalf of Sharman Networks, A Letter to Senator Joseph "
19350 "R. Biden, Jr., Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 26 "
19351 "February 2002, available at <ulink "
19352 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #80</ulink>; Serguei Osokine, "
19353 "<citetitle>A Quick Case for Intellectual Property Use Fee "
19354 "(IPUF)</citetitle>, 3 March 2002, available at <ulink "
19355 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #81</ulink>; Jefferson Graham, "
19356 "<quote>Kazaa, Verizon Propose to Pay Artists Directly,</quote> "
19357 "<citetitle>USA Today</citetitle>, 13 May 2002, available at <ulink "
19358 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #82</ulink>; Steven M. Cherry, "
19359 "<quote>Getting Copyright Right,</quote> IEEE Spectrum Online, 1 July 2002, "
19360 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #83</ulink>; "
19361 "Declan McCullagh, <quote>Verizon's Copyright Campaign,</quote> CNET "
19362 "News.com, 27 August 2002, available at <ulink "
19363 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #84</ulink>. Fisher's proposal "
19364 "is very similar to Richard Stallman's proposal for DAT. Unlike Fisher's, "
19365 "Stallman's proposal would not pay artists directly proportionally, though "
19366 "more popular artists would get more than the less popular. As is typical "
19367 "with Stallman, his proposal predates the current debate by about a "
19368 "decade. See <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #85</ulink>. "
19369 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
19370 "id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/>"
19373 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19374 #: freeculture.xml:14552
19376 "The idea would be a modification of a proposal that has been floated by "
19377 "Harvard law professor William Fisher.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
19378 "id=\"0\"/> Fisher suggests a very clever way around the current impasse of "
19379 "the Internet. Under his plan, all content capable of digital transmission "
19380 "would (1) be marked with a digital watermark (don't worry about how easy it "
19381 "is to evade these marks; as you'll see, there's no incentive to evade "
19382 "them). Once the content is marked, then entrepreneurs would develop (2) "
19383 "systems to monitor how many items of each content were distributed. On the "
19384 "basis of those numbers, then (3) artists would be compensated. The "
19385 "compensation would be paid for by (4) an appropriate tax."
19388 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19389 #: freeculture.xml:14610
19391 "Fisher's proposal is careful and comprehensive. It raises a million "
19392 "questions, most of which he answers well in his upcoming book, "
19393 "<citetitle>Promises to Keep</citetitle>. The modification that I would make "
19394 "is relatively simple: Fisher imagines his proposal replacing the existing "
19395 "copyright system. I imagine it complementing the existing system. The aim "
19396 "of the proposal would be to facilitate compensation to the extent that harm "
19397 "could be shown. This compensation would be temporary, aimed at facilitating "
19398 "a transition between regimes. And it would require renewal after a period of "
19399 "years. If it continues to make sense to facilitate free exchange of content, "
19400 "supported through a taxation system, then it can be continued. If this form "
19401 "of protection is no longer necessary, then the system could lapse into the "
19402 "old system of controlling access."
19406 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19407 #: freeculture.xml:14629
19409 "Fisher would balk at the idea of allowing the system to lapse. His aim is "
19410 "not just to ensure that artists are paid, but also to ensure that the system "
19411 "supports the widest range of <quote>semiotic democracy</quote> possible. But "
19412 "the aims of semiotic democracy would be satisfied if the other changes I "
19413 "described were accomplished—in particular, the limits on derivative "
19414 "uses. A system that simply charges for access would not greatly burden "
19415 "semiotic democracy if there were few limitations on what one was allowed to "
19416 "do with the content itself."
19419 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19420 #: freeculture.xml:14643
19422 "No doubt it would be difficult to calculate the proper measure of "
19423 "<quote>harm</quote> to an industry. But the difficulty of making that "
19424 "calculation would be outweighed by the benefit of facilitating "
19425 "innovation. This background system to compensate would also not need to "
19426 "interfere with innovative proposals such as Apple's MusicStore. As experts "
19427 "predicted when Apple launched the MusicStore, it could beat "
19428 "<quote>free</quote> by being easier than free is. This has proven correct: "
19429 "Apple has sold millions of songs at even the very high price of 99 cents a "
19430 "song. (At 99 cents, the cost is the equivalent of a per-song CD price, "
19431 "though the labels have none of the costs of a CD to pay.) Apple's move was "
19432 "countered by Real Networks, offering music at just 79 cents a song. And no "
19433 "doubt there will be a great deal of competition to offer and sell music "
19437 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19438 #: freeculture.xml:14659
19440 "This competition has already occurred against the background of "
19441 "<quote>free</quote> music from p2p systems. As the sellers of cable "
19442 "television have known for thirty years, and the sellers of bottled water for "
19443 "much more than that, there is nothing impossible at all about "
19444 "<quote>competing with free.</quote> Indeed, if anything, the competition "
19445 "spurs the competitors to offer new and better products. This is precisely "
19446 "what the competitive market was to be about. Thus in Singapore, though "
19447 "piracy is rampant, movie theaters are often luxurious—with "
19448 "<quote>first class</quote> seats, and meals served while you watch a "
19449 "movie—as they struggle and succeed in finding ways to compete with "
19450 "<quote>free.</quote>"
19453 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19454 #: freeculture.xml:14671
19456 "This regime of competition, with a backstop to assure that artists don't "
19457 "lose, would facilitate a great deal of innovation in the delivery of "
19458 "content. That competition would continue to shrink type A sharing. It would "
19459 "inspire an extraordinary range of new innovators—ones who would have a "
19460 "right to the content, and would no longer fear the uncertain and "
19461 "barbarically severe punishments of the law."
19464 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19465 #: freeculture.xml:14680
19466 msgid "In summary, then, my proposal is this:"
19470 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19471 #: freeculture.xml:14685
19473 "The Internet is in transition. We should not be regulating a technology in "
19474 "transition. We should instead be regulating to minimize the harm to "
19475 "interests affected by this technological change, while enabling, and "
19476 "encouraging, the most efficient technology we can create."
19479 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19480 #: freeculture.xml:14692
19481 msgid "We can minimize that harm while maximizing the benefit to innovation by"
19485 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
19486 #: freeculture.xml:14698
19487 msgid "guaranteeing the right to engage in type D sharing;"
19491 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
19492 #: freeculture.xml:14702
19494 "permitting noncommercial type C sharing without liability, and commercial "
19495 "type C sharing at a low and fixed rate set by statute;"
19499 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
19500 #: freeculture.xml:14708
19502 "while in this transition, taxing and compensating for type A sharing, to the "
19503 "extent actual harm is demonstrated."
19506 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19507 #: freeculture.xml:14713
19509 "But what if <quote>piracy</quote> doesn't disappear? What if there is a "
19510 "competitive market providing content at a low cost, but a significant number "
19511 "of consumers continue to <quote>take</quote> content for nothing? Should the "
19512 "law do something then?"
19515 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19516 #: freeculture.xml:14719
19518 "Yes, it should. But, again, what it should do depends upon how the facts "
19519 "develop. These changes may not eliminate type A sharing. But the real issue "
19520 "is not whether it eliminates sharing in the abstract. The real issue is its "
19521 "effect on the market. Is it better (a) to have a technology that is 95 "
19522 "percent secure and produces a market of size <citetitle>x</citetitle>, or "
19523 "(b) to have a technology that is 50 percent secure but produces a market of "
19524 "five times <citetitle>x</citetitle>? Less secure might produce more "
19525 "unauthorized sharing, but it is likely to also produce a much bigger market "
19526 "in authorized sharing. The most important thing is to assure artists' "
19527 "compensation without breaking the Internet. Once that's assured, then it may "
19528 "well be appropriate to find ways to track down the petty pirates."
19532 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19533 #: freeculture.xml:14733
19535 "But we're a long way away from whittling the problem down to this subset of "
19536 "type A sharers. And our focus until we're there should not be on finding "
19537 "ways to break the Internet. Our focus until we're there should be on how to "
19538 "make sure the artists are paid, while protecting the space for innovation "
19539 "and creativity that the Internet is."
19542 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
19543 #: freeculture.xml:14744
19544 msgid "5. Fire Lots of Lawyers"
19547 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19548 #: freeculture.xml:14746
19550 "I'm a lawyer. I make lawyers for a living. I believe in the law. I believe "
19551 "in the law of copyright. Indeed, I have devoted my life to working in law, "
19552 "not because there are big bucks at the end but because there are ideals at "
19553 "the end that I would love to live."
19556 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19557 #: freeculture.xml:14752
19559 "Yet much of this book has been a criticism of lawyers, or the role lawyers "
19560 "have played in this debate. The law speaks to ideals, but it is my view that "
19561 "our profession has become too attuned to the client. And in a world where "
19562 "the rich clients have one strong view, the unwillingness of the profession "
19563 "to question or counter that one strong view queers the law."
19567 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
19568 #: freeculture.xml:14769
19570 "Lawrence Lessig, <quote>Copyright's First Amendment</quote> (Melville "
19571 "B. Nimmer Memorial Lecture), <citetitle>UCLA Law Review</citetitle> 48 "
19572 "(2001): 1057, 1069–70."
19575 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19576 #: freeculture.xml:14760
19578 "The evidence of this bending is compelling. I'm attacked as a "
19579 "<quote>radical</quote> by many within the profession, yet the positions that "
19580 "I am advocating are precisely the positions of some of the most moderate and "
19581 "significant figures in the history of this branch of the law. Many, for "
19582 "example, thought crazy the challenge that we brought to the Copyright Term "
19583 "Extension Act. Yet just thirty years ago, the dominant scholar and "
19584 "practitioner in the field of copyright, Melville Nimmer, thought it "
19585 "obvious.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
19588 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19589 #: freeculture.xml:14775
19591 "However, my criticism of the role that lawyers have played in this debate is "
19592 "not just about a professional bias. It is more importantly about our failure "
19593 "to actually reckon the costs of the law."
19596 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
19597 #: freeculture.xml:14785
19599 "A good example is the work of Professor Stan Liebowitz. Liebowitz is to be "
19600 "commended for his careful review of data about infringement, leading him to "
19601 "question his own publicly stated position—twice. He initially "
19602 "predicted that downloading would substantially harm the industry. He then "
19603 "revised his view in light of the data, and he has since revised his view "
19604 "again. Compare Stan J. Liebowitz, <citetitle>Rethinking the Network "
19605 "Economy: The True Forces That Drive the Digital Marketplace</citetitle> (New "
19606 "York: Amacom, 2002), (reviewing his original view but expressing skepticism) "
19607 "with Stan J. Liebowitz, <quote>Will MP3s Annihilate the Record "
19608 "Industry?</quote> working paper, June 2003, available at <ulink "
19609 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #86</ulink>. Liebowitz's careful "
19610 "analysis is extremely valuable in estimating the effect of file-sharing "
19611 "technology. In my view, however, he underestimates the costs of the legal "
19612 "system. See, for example, <citetitle>Rethinking</citetitle>, 174–76. "
19613 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
19616 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19617 #: freeculture.xml:14780
19619 "Economists are supposed to be good at reckoning costs and benefits. But "
19620 "more often than not, economists, with no clue about how the legal system "
19621 "actually functions, simply assume that the transaction costs of the legal "
19622 "system are slight.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> They see a "
19623 "system that has been around for hundreds of years, and they assume it works "
19624 "the way their elementary school civics class taught them it works."
19628 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19629 #: freeculture.xml:14809
19631 "But the legal system doesn't work. Or more accurately, it doesn't work for "
19632 "anyone except those with the most resources. Not because the system is "
19633 "corrupt. I don't think our legal system (at the federal level, at least) is "
19634 "at all corrupt. I mean simply because the costs of our legal system are so "
19635 "astonishingly high that justice can practically never be done."
19638 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19639 #: freeculture.xml:14817
19641 "These costs distort free culture in many ways. A lawyer's time is billed at "
19642 "the largest firms at more than $400 per hour. How much time should such a "
19643 "lawyer spend reading cases carefully, or researching obscure strands of "
19644 "authority? The answer is the increasing reality: very little. The law "
19645 "depended upon the careful articulation and development of doctrine, but the "
19646 "careful articulation and development of legal doctrine depends upon careful "
19647 "work. Yet that careful work costs too much, except in the most high-profile "
19648 "and costly cases."
19651 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19652 #: freeculture.xml:14827
19654 "The costliness and clumsiness and randomness of this system mock our "
19655 "tradition. And lawyers, as well as academics, should consider it their duty "
19656 "to change the way the law works—or better, to change the law so that "
19657 "it works. It is wrong that the system works well only for the top 1 percent "
19658 "of the clients. It could be made radically more efficient, and inexpensive, "
19659 "and hence radically more just."
19662 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19663 #: freeculture.xml:14835
19665 "But until that reform is complete, we as a society should keep the law away "
19666 "from areas that we know it will only harm. And that is precisely what the "
19667 "law will too often do if too much of our culture is left to its review."
19670 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19671 #: freeculture.xml:14842
19673 "Think about the amazing things your kid could do or make with digital "
19674 "technology—the film, the music, the Web page, the blog. Or think about "
19675 "the amazing things your community could facilitate with digital "
19676 "technology—a wiki, a barn raising, activism to change something. "
19677 "Think about all those creative things, and then imagine cold molasses poured "
19678 "onto the machines. This is what any regime that requires permission "
19679 "produces. Again, this is the reality of Brezhnev's Russia."
19683 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19684 #: freeculture.xml:14851
19686 "The law should regulate in certain areas of culture—but it should "
19687 "regulate culture only where that regulation does good. Yet lawyers rarely "
19688 "test their power, or the power they promote, against this simple pragmatic "
19689 "question: <quote>Will it do good?</quote> When challenged about the "
19690 "expanding reach of the law, the lawyer answers, <quote>Why not?</quote>"
19693 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19694 #: freeculture.xml:14860
19696 "We should ask, <quote>Why?</quote> Show me why your regulation of culture is "
19697 "needed. Show me how it does good. And until you can show me both, keep your "
19701 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><title>
19702 #: freeculture.xml:14869
19706 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
19707 #: freeculture.xml:14871
19709 "Throughout this text, there are references to links on the World Wide "
19710 "Web. As anyone who has tried to use the Web knows, these links can be highly "
19711 "unstable. I have tried to remedy the instability by redirecting readers to "
19712 "the original source through the Web site associated with this book. For each "
19713 "link below, you can go to http://free-culture.cc/notes and locate the "
19714 "original source by clicking on the number after the # sign. If the original "
19715 "link remains alive, you will be redirected to that link. If the original "
19716 "link has disappeared, you will be redirected to an appropriate reference for "
19720 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><title>
19721 #: freeculture.xml:14886
19722 msgid "ACKNOWLEDGMENTS"
19725 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
19726 #: freeculture.xml:14888
19728 "This book is the product of a long and as yet unsuccessful struggle that "
19729 "began when I read of Eric Eldred's war to keep books free. Eldred's work "
19730 "helped launch a movement, the free culture movement, and it is to him that "
19731 "this book is dedicated."
19734 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
19735 #: freeculture.xml:14895
19737 "I received guidance in various places from friends and academics, including "
19738 "Glenn Brown, Peter DiCola, Jennifer Mnookin, Richard Posner, Mark Rose, and "
19739 "Kathleen Sullivan. And I received correction and guidance from many amazing "
19740 "students at Stanford Law School and Stanford University. They included "
19741 "Andrew B. Coan, John Eden, James P. Fellers, Christopher Guzelian, Erica "
19742 "Goldberg, Robert Hallman, Andrew Harris, Matthew Kahn, Brian Link, Ohad "
19743 "Mayblum, Alina Ng, and Erica Platt. I am particularly grateful to Catherine "
19744 "Crump and Harry Surden, who helped direct their research, and to Laura "
19745 "Lynch, who brilliantly managed the army that they assembled, and provided "
19746 "her own critical eye on much of this."
19750 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
19751 #: freeculture.xml:14908
19753 "Yuko Noguchi helped me to understand the laws of Japan as well as its "
19754 "culture. I am thankful to her, and to the many in Japan who helped me "
19755 "prepare this book: Joi Ito, Takayuki Matsutani, Naoto Misaki, Michihiro "
19756 "Sasaki, Hiromichi Tanaka, Hiroo Yamagata, and Yoshihiro Yonezawa. I am "
19757 "thankful as well as to Professor Nobuhiro Nakayama, and the Tokyo University "
19758 "Business Law Center, for giving me the chance to spend time in Japan, and to "
19759 "Tadashi Shiraishi and Kiyokazu Yamagami for their generous help while I was "
19763 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
19764 #: freeculture.xml:14919
19766 "These are the traditional sorts of help that academics regularly draw "
19767 "upon. But in addition to them, the Internet has made it possible to receive "
19768 "advice and correction from many whom I have never even met. Among those who "
19769 "have responded with extremely helpful advice to requests on my blog about "
19770 "the book are Dr. Mohammad Al-Ubaydli, David Gerstein, and Peter DiMauro, as "
19771 "well as a long list of those who had specific ideas about ways to develop my "
19772 "argument. They included Richard Bondi, Steven Cherry, David Coe, Nik "
19773 "Cubrilovic, Bob Devine, Charles Eicher, Thomas Guida, Elihu M. Gerson, "
19774 "Jeremy Hunsinger, Vaughn Iverson, John Karabaic, Jeff Keltner, James "
19775 "Lindenschmidt, K. L. Mann, Mark Manning, Nora McCauley, Jeffrey McHugh, Evan "
19776 "McMullen, Fred Norton, John Pormann, Pedro A. D. Rezende, Shabbir Safdar, "
19777 "Saul Schleimer, Clay Shirky, Adam Shostack, Kragen Sitaker, Chris Smith, "
19778 "Bruce Steinberg, Andrzej Jan Taramina, Sean Walsh, Matt Wasserman, Miljenko "
19779 "Williams, <quote>Wink,</quote> Roger Wood, <quote>Ximmbo da Jazz,</quote> "
19780 "and Richard Yanco. (I apologize if I have missed anyone; with computers come "
19781 "glitches, and a crash of my e-mail system meant I lost a bunch of great "
19785 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
19786 #: freeculture.xml:14939
19788 "Richard Stallman and Michael Carroll each read the whole book in draft, and "
19789 "each provided extremely helpful correction and advice. Michael helped me to "
19790 "see more clearly the significance of the regulation of derivitive works. And "
19791 "Richard corrected an embarrassingly large number of errors. While my work is "
19792 "in part inspired by Stallman's, he does not agree with me in important "
19793 "places throughout this book."
19796 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
19797 #: freeculture.xml:14948
19799 "Finally, and forever, I am thankful to Bettina, who has always insisted that "
19800 "there would be unending happiness away from these battles, and who has "
19801 "always been right. This slow learner is, as ever, grateful for her perpetual "
19802 "patience and love."