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36 msgid "<abbrev>\"freeculture\"</abbrev>"
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40 #: freeculture.xml:24 freeculture.xml:175
42 "HOW BIG MEDIA USES TECHNOLOGY AND THE LAW TO LOCK DOWN CULTURE AND CONTROL "
46 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo>
48 msgid "<pubdate>2004-03-25</pubdate>"
51 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><releaseinfo>
53 msgid "Version 2004-02-10"
56 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><authorgroup><author><firstname>
61 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><authorgroup><author><surname>
66 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><subjectset><subject><subjectterm>
68 msgid "Intellectual property—United States."
71 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><subjectset><subject><subjectterm>
73 msgid "Mass media—United States."
76 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><subjectset><subject><subjectterm>
78 msgid "Technological innovations—United States."
81 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><subjectset><subject><subjectterm>
83 msgid "Art—United States."
86 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><publisher><address>
89 msgid "<city>New York</city>"
92 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo>
95 "<publisher> <publishername>The Penguin Press</publishername> <placeholder "
96 "type=\"address\" id=\"0\"/> </publisher> <copyright> <year>2004</year> "
97 "<holder>Lawrence Lessig</holder> </copyright>"
100 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><legalnotice><para><inlinemediaobject>
101 #: freeculture.xml:69
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109 #: freeculture.xml:76
110 msgid "Creative Commons, Some rights reserved"
113 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><legalnotice><para>
114 #: freeculture.xml:68
115 msgid "<placeholder type=\"inlinemediaobject\" id=\"0\"/>"
118 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><legalnotice><para>
119 #: freeculture.xml:82
121 "This version of <citetitle>Free Culture</citetitle> is licensed under a "
122 "Creative Commons license. This license permits non-commercial use of this "
123 "work, so long as attribution is given. For more information about the "
124 "license, click the icon above, or visit <ulink "
125 "url=\"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/1.0/\">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/1.0/</ulink>"
128 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><abstract><title>
129 #: freeculture.xml:91
130 msgid "ABOUT THE AUTHOR"
133 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><abstract><para>
134 #: freeculture.xml:93
136 "LAWRENCE LESSIG (<ulink "
137 "url=\"http://www.lessig.org\">http://www.lessig.org</ulink>), professor of "
138 "law and a John A. Wilson Distinguished Faculty Scholar at Stanford Law "
139 "School, is founder of the Stanford Center for Internet and Society and is "
140 "chairman of the Creative Commons (<ulink "
141 "url=\"http://creativecommons.org\">http://creativecommons.org</ulink>). The "
142 "author of The Future of Ideas (Random House, 2001) and Code: And Other Laws "
143 "of Cyberspace (Basic Books, 1999), Lessig is a member of the boards of the "
144 "Public Library of Science, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Public "
145 "Knowledge. He was the winner of the Free Software Foundation's Award for the "
146 "Advancement of Free Software, twice listed in BusinessWeek's \"e.biz 25,\" "
147 "and named one of Scientific American's \"50 visionaries.\" A graduate of the "
148 "University of Pennsylvania, Cambridge University, and Yale Law School, "
149 "Lessig clerked for Judge Richard Posner of the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of "
153 #. testing different ways to tag the cover page
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167 #: freeculture.xml:114
169 "<imageobject remap=\"lrg\" role=\"front-large\"> <imagedata "
170 "fileref=\"images/cover.png\" format=\"PNG\" width=\"444\" /> </imageobject>"
174 #. http://catalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?v3=1&DB=local&CMD=010a+2003063276&CNT=10+records+per+page
176 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo>
177 #: freeculture.xml:112
179 " <placeholder type=\"mediaobject\" id=\"0\"/> <biblioid "
180 "class=\"isbn\">1-59420-006-8</biblioid> <biblioid "
181 "class=\"libraryofcongress\">2003063276</biblioid>"
184 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
185 #: freeculture.xml:143
186 msgid "You can buy a copy of this book by clicking on one of the links below:"
189 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><itemizedlist><listitem><para>
190 #: freeculture.xml:146
191 msgid "<ulink url=\"http://www.amazon.com/\">Amazon</ulink>"
194 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><itemizedlist><listitem><para>
195 #: freeculture.xml:147
196 msgid "<ulink url=\"http://www.barnesandnoble.com/\">B&N</ulink>"
199 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><itemizedlist><listitem><para>
200 #: freeculture.xml:148
201 msgid "<ulink url=\"http://www.penguin.com/\">Penguin</ulink>"
204 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
205 #: freeculture.xml:155
206 msgid "ALSO BY LAWRENCE LESSIG"
209 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
210 #: freeculture.xml:158
211 msgid "The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World"
214 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
215 #: freeculture.xml:161
216 msgid "Code: And Other Laws of Cyberspace"
219 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
220 #: freeculture.xml:166
221 msgid "THE PENGUIN PRESS, NEW YORK"
224 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
225 #: freeculture.xml:171
229 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
230 #: freeculture.xml:181
231 msgid "LAWRENCE LESSIG"
234 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
235 #: freeculture.xml:186
237 "THE PENGUIN PRESS, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. 375 Hudson Street "
241 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
242 #: freeculture.xml:190
243 msgid "Copyright © Lawrence Lessig. All rights reserved."
246 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
247 #: freeculture.xml:193
249 "Excerpt from an editorial titled \"The Coming of Copyright Perpetuity,\" "
250 "<citetitle>The New York Times</citetitle>, January 16, 2003. Copyright "
251 "© 2003 by The New York Times Co. Reprinted with permission."
254 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
255 #: freeculture.xml:198
257 "Cartoon in <xref linkend=\"fig-1711\"/> by Paul Conrad, copyright Tribune "
258 "Media Services, Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission."
261 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
262 #: freeculture.xml:202
264 "Diagram in <xref linkend=\"fig-1761\"/> courtesy of the office of FCC "
265 "Commissioner, Michael J. Copps."
268 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
269 #: freeculture.xml:206
270 msgid "Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data"
273 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
274 #: freeculture.xml:209
276 "Lessig, Lawrence. Free culture : how big media uses technology and the law "
277 "to lock down culture and control creativity / Lawrence Lessig."
280 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
281 #: freeculture.xml:214
285 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
286 #: freeculture.xml:217
287 msgid "Includes index."
290 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
291 #: freeculture.xml:220
292 msgid "ISBN 1-59420-006-8 (hardcover)"
295 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
296 #: freeculture.xml:224
298 "1. Intellectual property—United States. 2. Mass media—United "
302 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
303 #: freeculture.xml:227
305 "3. Technological innovations—United States. 4. Art—United "
309 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
310 #: freeculture.xml:230
314 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
315 #: freeculture.xml:233
316 msgid "343.7309'9—dc22"
319 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
320 #: freeculture.xml:236
321 msgid "This book is printed on acid-free paper."
324 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
325 #: freeculture.xml:239
326 msgid "Printed in the United States of America"
329 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
330 #: freeculture.xml:242
331 msgid "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4"
334 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
335 #: freeculture.xml:245
336 msgid "Designed by Marysarah Quinn"
339 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
340 #: freeculture.xml:249
341 msgid "&translationblock;"
344 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
345 #: freeculture.xml:253
347 "Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this "
348 "publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval "
349 "system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, "
350 "photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission "
351 "of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book."
354 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
355 #: freeculture.xml:261
357 "The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or "
358 "via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and "
359 "punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and "
360 "do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted "
361 "materials. Your support of the author's rights is appreciated."
364 #. type: Content of: <book><dedication><para>
365 #: freeculture.xml:273
367 "To Eric Eldred—whose work first drew me to this cause, and for whom it "
371 #. type: Content of: <book><lot><title>
372 #: freeculture.xml:281
373 msgid "List of figures"
376 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><title>
377 #: freeculture.xml:343
381 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><indexterm><primary>
382 #: freeculture.xml:345
386 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
387 #: freeculture.xml:348
389 "At the end of his review of my first book, <citetitle>Code: And Other Laws "
390 "of Cyberspace</citetitle>, David Pogue, a brilliant writer and author of "
391 "countless technical and computer-related texts, wrote this:"
394 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
395 #: freeculture.xml:358
397 "David Pogue, \"Don't Just Chat, Do Something,\" <citetitle>New York "
398 "Times</citetitle>, 30 January 2000."
401 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><blockquote><para>
402 #: freeculture.xml:354
404 "Unlike actual law, Internet software has no capacity to punish. It doesn't "
405 "affect people who aren't online (and only a tiny minority of the world "
406 "population is). And if you don't like the Internet's system, you can always "
407 "flip off the modem.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
410 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
411 #: freeculture.xml:363
413 "Pogue was skeptical of the core argument of the book—that software, or "
414 "\"code,\" functioned as a kind of law—and his review suggested the "
415 "happy thought that if life in cyberspace got bad, we could always \"drizzle, "
416 "drazzle, druzzle, drome\"-like simply flip a switch and be back home. Turn "
417 "off the modem, unplug the computer, and any troubles that exist in "
418 "<emphasis>that</emphasis> space wouldn't \"affect\" us anymore."
422 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
423 #: freeculture.xml:372
425 "Pogue might have been right in 1999—I'm skeptical, but maybe. But "
426 "even if he was right then, the point is not right now: <citetitle>Free "
427 "Culture</citetitle> is about the troubles the Internet causes even after the "
428 "modem is turned off. It is an argument about how the battles that now rage "
429 "regarding life on-line have fundamentally affected \"people who aren't "
430 "online.\" There is no switch that will insulate us from the Internet's "
434 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
435 #: freeculture.xml:383
437 "But unlike <citetitle>Code</citetitle>, the argument here is not much about "
438 "the Internet itself. It is instead about the consequence of the Internet to "
439 "a part of our tradition that is much more fundamental, and, as hard as this "
440 "is for a geek-wanna-be to admit, much more important."
443 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para><footnote><para>
444 #: freeculture.xml:395
446 "Richard M. Stallman, <citetitle>Free Software, Free Societies</citetitle> 57 "
447 "(Joshua Gay, ed. 2002)."
450 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
451 #: freeculture.xml:390
453 "That tradition is the way our culture gets made. As I explain in the pages "
454 "that follow, we come from a tradition of \"free culture\"—not \"free\" "
455 "as in \"free beer\" (to borrow a phrase from the founder of the free "
456 "software movement<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>), but \"free\" as "
457 "in \"free speech,\" \"free markets,\" \"free trade,\" \"free enterprise,\" "
458 "\"free will,\" and \"free elections.\" A free culture supports and protects "
459 "creators and innovators. It does this directly by granting intellectual "
460 "property rights. But it does so indirectly by limiting the reach of those "
461 "rights, to guarantee that follow-on creators and innovators remain "
462 "<emphasis>as free as possible</emphasis> from the control of the past. A "
463 "free culture is not a culture without property, just as a free market is not "
464 "a market in which everything is free. The opposite of a free culture is a "
465 "\"permission culture\"—a culture in which creators get to create only "
466 "with the permission of the powerful, or of creators from the past."
469 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
470 #: freeculture.xml:410
472 "If we understood this change, I believe we would resist it. Not \"we\" on "
473 "the Left or \"you\" on the Right, but we who have no stake in the particular "
474 "industries of culture that defined the twentieth century. Whether you are "
475 "on the Left or the Right, if you are in this sense disinterested, then the "
476 "story I tell here will trouble you. For the changes I describe affect values "
477 "that both sides of our political culture deem fundamental."
480 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
481 #: freeculture.xml:418 freeculture.xml:12819
482 msgid "CodePink Women in Peace"
485 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
486 #: freeculture.xml:429 freeculture.xml:439 freeculture.xml:12832
487 msgid "Safire, William"
490 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
491 #: freeculture.xml:420
493 "We saw a glimpse of this bipartisan outrage in the early summer of 2003. As "
494 "the FCC considered changes in media ownership rules that would relax limits "
495 "on media concentration, an extraordinary coalition generated more than "
496 "700,000 letters to the FCC opposing the change. As William Safire described "
497 "marching \"uncomfortably alongside CodePink Women for Peace and the National "
498 "Rifle Association, between liberal Olympia Snowe and conservative Ted "
499 "Stevens,\" he formulated perhaps most simply just what was at stake: the "
500 "concentration of power. And as he asked, <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
504 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
505 #: freeculture.xml:437
507 "William Safire, \"The Great Media Gulp,\" <citetitle>New York "
508 "Times</citetitle>, 22 May 2003. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
511 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><blockquote><para>
512 #: freeculture.xml:433
514 "Does that sound unconservative? Not to me. The concentration of "
515 "power—political, corporate, media, cultural—should be anathema "
516 "to conservatives. The diffusion of power through local control, thereby "
517 "encouraging individual participation, is the essence of federalism and the "
518 "greatest expression of democracy.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
521 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
522 #: freeculture.xml:444
524 "This idea is an element of the argument of <citetitle>Free "
525 "Culture</citetitle>, though my focus is not just on the concentration of "
526 "power produced by concentrations in ownership, but more importantly, if "
527 "because less visibly, on the concentration of power produced by a radical "
528 "change in the effective scope of the law. The law is changing; that change "
529 "is altering the way our culture gets made; that change should worry "
530 "you—whether or not you care about the Internet, and whether you're on "
531 "Safire's left or on his right. The inspiration for the title and for much "
532 "of the argument of this book comes from the work of Richard Stallman and the "
533 "Free Software Foundation. Indeed, as I reread Stallman's own work, "
534 "especially the essays in <citetitle>Free Software, Free Society</citetitle>, "
535 "I realize that all of the theoretical insights I develop here are insights "
536 "Stallman described decades ago. One could thus well argue that this work is "
537 "\"merely\" derivative."
541 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
542 #: freeculture.xml:460
544 "I accept that criticism, if indeed it is a criticism. The work of a lawyer "
545 "is always derivative, and I mean to do nothing more in this book than to "
546 "remind a culture about a tradition that has always been its own. Like "
547 "Stallman, I defend that tradition on the basis of values. Like Stallman, I "
548 "believe those are the values of freedom. And like Stallman, I believe those "
549 "are values of our past that will need to be defended in our future. A free "
550 "culture has been our past, but it will only be our future if we change the "
551 "path we are on right now. Like Stallman's arguments for free software, an "
552 "argument for free culture stumbles on a confusion that is hard to avoid, and "
553 "even harder to understand. A free culture is not a culture without property; "
554 "it is not a culture in which artists don't get paid. A culture without "
555 "property, or in which creators can't get paid, is anarchy, not "
556 "freedom. Anarchy is not what I advance here."
559 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
560 #: freeculture.xml:478
562 "Instead, the free culture that I defend in this book is a balance between "
563 "anarchy and control. A free culture, like a free market, is filled with "
564 "property. It is filled with rules of property and contract that get enforced "
565 "by the state. But just as a free market is perverted if its property becomes "
566 "feudal, so too can a free culture be queered by extremism in the property "
567 "rights that define it. That is what I fear about our culture today. It is "
568 "against that extremism that this book is written."
571 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><title>
572 #: freeculture.xml:493
576 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
577 #: freeculture.xml:495
579 "On December 17, 1903, on a windy North Carolina beach for just shy of one "
580 "hundred seconds, the Wright brothers demonstrated that a heavier-than-air, "
581 "self-propelled vehicle could fly. The moment was electric and its importance "
582 "widely understood. Almost immediately, there was an explosion of interest in "
583 "this newfound technology of manned flight, and a gaggle of innovators began "
587 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
588 #: freeculture.xml:507
590 "St. George Tucker, <citetitle>Blackstone's Commentaries</citetitle> 3 (South "
591 "Hackensack, N.J.: Rothman Reprints, 1969), 18."
594 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
595 #: freeculture.xml:503
597 "At the time the Wright brothers invented the airplane, American law held "
598 "that a property owner presumptively owned not just the surface of his land, "
599 "but all the land below, down to the center of the earth, and all the space "
600 "above, to \"an indefinite extent, upwards.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
601 "id=\"0\"/> For many years, scholars had puzzled about how best to interpret "
602 "the idea that rights in land ran to the heavens. Did that mean that you "
603 "owned the stars? Could you prosecute geese for their willful and regular "
607 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
608 #: freeculture.xml:516
610 "Then came airplanes, and for the first time, this principle of American "
611 "law—deep within the foundations of our tradition, and acknowledged by "
612 "the most important legal thinkers of our past—mattered. If my land "
613 "reaches to the heavens, what happens when United flies over my field? Do I "
614 "have the right to banish it from my property? Am I allowed to enter into an "
615 "exclusive license with Delta Airlines? Could we set up an auction to decide "
616 "how much these rights are worth?"
619 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
620 #: freeculture.xml:524 freeculture.xml:537 freeculture.xml:568 freeculture.xml:587 freeculture.xml:990 freeculture.xml:1007 freeculture.xml:1053 freeculture.xml:8835 freeculture.xml:12215 freeculture.xml:12923
621 msgid "Causby, Thomas Lee"
624 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
625 #: freeculture.xml:525 freeculture.xml:538 freeculture.xml:569 freeculture.xml:588 freeculture.xml:991 freeculture.xml:1008 freeculture.xml:1054 freeculture.xml:8836 freeculture.xml:12216 freeculture.xml:12924
626 msgid "Causby, Tinie"
629 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
630 #: freeculture.xml:527
632 "In 1945, these questions became a federal case. When North Carolina farmers "
633 "Thomas Lee and Tinie Causby started losing chickens because of low-flying "
634 "military aircraft (the terrified chickens apparently flew into the barn "
635 "walls and died), the Causbys filed a lawsuit saying that the government was "
636 "trespassing on their land. The airplanes, of course, never touched the "
637 "surface of the Causbys' land. But if, as Blackstone, Kent, and Coke had "
638 "said, their land reached to \"an indefinite extent, upwards,\" then the "
639 "government was trespassing on their property, and the Causbys wanted it to "
643 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
644 #: freeculture.xml:540
646 "The Supreme Court agreed to hear the Causbys' case. Congress had declared "
647 "the airways public, but if one's property really extended to the heavens, "
648 "then Congress's declaration could well have been an unconstitutional "
649 "\"taking\" of property without compensation. The Court acknowledged that "
650 "\"it is ancient doctrine that common law ownership of the land extended to "
651 "the periphery of the universe.\" But Justice Douglas had no patience for "
652 "ancient doctrine. In a single paragraph, hundreds of years of property law "
653 "were erased. As he wrote for the Court,"
656 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
657 #: freeculture.xml:560
659 "United States v. Causby, U.S. 328 (1946): 256, 261. The Court did find that "
660 "there could be a \"taking\" if the government's use of its land effectively "
661 "destroyed the value of the Causbys' land. This example was suggested to me "
662 "by Keith Aoki's wonderful piece, \"(Intellectual) Property and Sovereignty: "
663 "Notes Toward a Cultural Geography of Authorship,\" <citetitle>Stanford Law "
664 "Review</citetitle> 48 (1996): 1293, 1333. See also Paul Goldstein, "
665 "<citetitle>Real Property</citetitle> (Mineola, N.Y.: Foundation Press, "
666 "1984), 1112–13. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> "
667 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
670 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para>
671 #: freeculture.xml:551
673 "[The] doctrine has no place in the modern world. The air is a public "
674 "highway, as Congress has declared. Were that not true, every "
675 "transcontinental flight would subject the operator to countless trespass "
676 "suits. Common sense revolts at the idea. To recognize such private claims to "
677 "the airspace would clog these highways, seriously interfere with their "
678 "control and development in the public interest, and transfer into private "
679 "ownership that to which only the public has a just claim.<placeholder "
680 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
683 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
684 #: freeculture.xml:574
685 msgid "\"Common sense revolts at the idea.\""
689 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
690 #: freeculture.xml:577
692 "This is how the law usually works. Not often this abruptly or impatiently, "
693 "but eventually, this is how it works. It was Douglas's style not to "
694 "dither. Other justices would have blathered on for pages to reach the "
695 "conclusion that Douglas holds in a single line: \"Common sense revolts at "
696 "the idea.\" But whether it takes pages or a few words, it is the special "
697 "genius of a common law system, as ours is, that the law adjusts to the "
698 "technologies of the time. And as it adjusts, it changes. Ideas that were as "
699 "solid as rock in one age crumble in another."
702 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
703 #: freeculture.xml:590
705 "Or at least, this is how things happen when there's no one powerful on the "
706 "other side of the change. The Causbys were just farmers. And though there "
707 "were no doubt many like them who were upset by the growing traffic in the "
708 "air (though one hopes not many chickens flew themselves into walls), the "
709 "Causbys of the world would find it very hard to unite and stop the idea, and "
710 "the technology, that the Wright brothers had birthed. The Wright brothers "
711 "spat airplanes into the technological meme pool; the idea then spread like a "
712 "virus in a chicken coop; farmers like the Causbys found themselves "
713 "surrounded by \"what seemed reasonable\" given the technology that the "
714 "Wrights had produced. They could stand on their farms, dead chickens in "
715 "hand, and shake their fists at these newfangled technologies all they "
716 "wanted. They could call their representatives or even file a lawsuit. But "
717 "in the end, the force of what seems \"obvious\" to everyone else—the "
718 "power of \"common sense\"—would prevail. Their \"private interest\" "
719 "would not be allowed to defeat an obvious public gain."
722 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
723 #: freeculture.xml:619
724 msgid "Bell, Alexander Graham"
727 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
728 #: freeculture.xml:620
729 msgid "Edison, Thomas"
732 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
733 #: freeculture.xml:621
734 msgid "Faraday, Michael"
737 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
738 #: freeculture.xml:608
740 "Edwin Howard Armstrong is one of America's forgotten inventor geniuses. He "
741 "came to the great American inventor scene just after the titans Thomas "
742 "Edison and Alexander Graham Bell. But his work in the area of radio "
743 "technology was perhaps the most important of any single inventor in the "
744 "first fifty years of radio. He was better educated than Michael Faraday, who "
745 "as a bookbinder's apprentice had discovered electric induction in 1831. But "
746 "he had the same intuition about how the world of radio worked, and on at "
747 "least three occasions, Armstrong invented profoundly important technologies "
748 "that advanced our understanding of radio. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
749 "id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> <placeholder "
750 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/>"
753 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
754 #: freeculture.xml:624
756 "On the day after Christmas, 1933, four patents were issued to Armstrong for "
757 "his most significant invention—FM radio. Until then, consumer radio "
758 "had been amplitude-modulated (AM) radio. The theorists of the day had said "
759 "that frequency-modulated (FM) radio could never work. They were right about "
760 "FM radio in a narrow band of spectrum. But Armstrong discovered that "
761 "frequency-modulated radio in a wide band of spectrum would deliver an "
762 "astonishing fidelity of sound, with much less transmitter power and static."
765 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
766 #: freeculture.xml:634
768 "On November 5, 1935, he demonstrated the technology at a meeting of the "
769 "Institute of Radio Engineers at the Empire State Building in New York "
770 "City. He tuned his radio dial across a range of AM stations, until the radio "
771 "locked on a broadcast that he had arranged from seventeen miles away. The "
772 "radio fell totally silent, as if dead, and then with a clarity no one else "
773 "in that room had ever heard from an electrical device, it produced the sound "
774 "of an announcer's voice: \"This is amateur station W2AG at Yonkers, New "
775 "York, operating on frequency modulation at two and a half meters.\""
778 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
779 #: freeculture.xml:645
780 msgid "The audience was hearing something no one had thought possible:"
783 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
784 #: freeculture.xml:656
786 "Lawrence Lessing, <citetitle>Man of High Fidelity: Edwin Howard "
787 "Armstrong</citetitle> (Philadelphia: J. B. Lipincott Company, 1956), 209."
790 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para>
791 #: freeculture.xml:649
793 "A glass of water was poured before the microphone in Yonkers; it sounded "
794 "like a glass of water being poured. … A paper was crumpled and torn; "
795 "it sounded like paper and not like a crackling forest fire. … Sousa "
796 "marches were played from records and a piano solo and guitar number were "
797 "performed. … The music was projected with a live-ness rarely if ever "
798 "heard before from a radio \"music box.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
803 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
804 #: freeculture.xml:662
806 "As our own common sense tells us, Armstrong had discovered a vastly superior "
807 "radio technology. But at the time of his invention, Armstrong was working "
808 "for RCA. RCA was the dominant player in the then dominant AM radio "
809 "market. By 1935, there were a thousand radio stations across the United "
810 "States, but the stations in large cities were all owned by a handful of "
814 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
815 #: freeculture.xml:676 freeculture.xml:696
816 msgid "Sarnoff, David"
819 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
820 #: freeculture.xml:671
822 "RCA's president, David Sarnoff, a friend of Armstrong's, was eager that "
823 "Armstrong discover a way to remove static from AM radio. So Sarnoff was "
824 "quite excited when Armstrong told him he had a device that removed static "
825 "from \"radio.\" But when Armstrong demonstrated his invention, Sarnoff was "
826 "not pleased. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
829 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
830 #: freeculture.xml:683
832 "See \"Saints: The Heroes and Geniuses of the Electronic Era,\" First "
833 "Electronic Church of America, at www.webstationone.com/fecha, available at "
834 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #1</ulink>."
837 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para>
838 #: freeculture.xml:680
840 "I thought Armstrong would invent some kind of a filter to remove static from "
841 "our AM radio. I didn't think he'd start a revolution— start up a whole "
842 "damn new industry to compete with RCA.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
846 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
847 #: freeculture.xml:692
849 "Armstrong's invention threatened RCA's AM empire, so the company launched a "
850 "campaign to smother FM radio. While FM may have been a superior technology, "
851 "Sarnoff was a superior tactician. As one author described, <placeholder "
852 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
855 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
856 #: freeculture.xml:705
857 msgid "Lessing, 226."
860 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para>
861 #: freeculture.xml:700
863 "The forces for FM, largely engineering, could not overcome the weight of "
864 "strategy devised by the sales, patent, and legal offices to subdue this "
865 "threat to corporate position. For FM, if allowed to develop unrestrained, "
866 "posed … a complete reordering of radio power … and the "
867 "eventual overthrow of the carefully restricted AM system on which RCA had "
868 "grown to power.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
871 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
872 #: freeculture.xml:710
874 "RCA at first kept the technology in house, insisting that further tests were "
875 "needed. When, after two years of testing, Armstrong grew impatient, RCA "
876 "began to use its power with the government to stall FM radio's deployment "
877 "generally. In 1936, RCA hired the former head of the FCC and assigned him "
878 "the task of assuring that the FCC assign spectrum in a way that would "
879 "castrate FM—principally by moving FM radio to a different band of "
880 "spectrum. At first, these efforts failed. But when Armstrong and the nation "
881 "were distracted by World War II, RCA's work began to be more "
882 "successful. Soon after the war ended, the FCC announced a set of policies "
883 "that would have one clear effect: FM radio would be crippled. As Lawrence "
884 "Lessing described it,"
887 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
888 #: freeculture.xml:729
889 msgid "Lessing, 256."
892 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para>
893 #: freeculture.xml:725
895 "The series of body blows that FM radio received right after the war, in a "
896 "series of rulings manipulated through the FCC by the big radio interests, "
897 "were almost incredible in their force and deviousness.<placeholder "
898 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
901 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
902 #: freeculture.xml:733
906 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
907 #: freeculture.xml:735
909 "To make room in the spectrum for RCA's latest gamble, television, FM radio "
910 "users were to be moved to a totally new spectrum band. The power of FM radio "
911 "stations was also cut, meaning FM could no longer be used to beam programs "
912 "from one part of the country to another. (This change was strongly "
913 "supported by AT&T, because the loss of FM relaying stations would mean "
914 "radio stations would have to buy wired links from AT&T.) The spread of "
915 "FM radio was thus choked, at least temporarily."
918 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
919 #: freeculture.xml:745
921 "Armstrong resisted RCA's efforts. In response, RCA resisted Armstrong's "
922 "patents. After incorporating FM technology into the emerging standard for "
923 "television, RCA declared the patents invalid—baselessly, and almost "
924 "fifteen years after they were issued. It thus refused to pay him "
925 "royalties. For six years, Armstrong fought an expensive war of litigation to "
926 "defend the patents. Finally, just as the patents expired, RCA offered a "
927 "settlement so low that it would not even cover Armstrong's lawyers' "
928 "fees. Defeated, broken, and now broke, in 1954 Armstrong wrote a short note "
929 "to his wife and then stepped out of a thirteenth-story window to his death."
933 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
934 #: freeculture.xml:757
936 "This is how the law sometimes works. Not often this tragically, and rarely "
937 "with heroic drama, but sometimes, this is how it works. From the beginning, "
938 "government and government agencies have been subject to capture. They are "
939 "more likely captured when a powerful interest is threatened by either a "
940 "legal or technical change. That powerful interest too often exerts its "
941 "influence within the government to get the government to protect it. The "
942 "rhetoric of this protection is of course always public spirited; the reality "
943 "is something different. Ideas that were as solid as rock in one age, but "
944 "that, left to themselves, would crumble in another, are sustained through "
945 "this subtle corruption of our political process. RCA had what the Causbys "
946 "did not: the power to stifle the effect of technological change."
949 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
950 #: freeculture.xml:779
952 "Amanda Lenhart, \"The Ever-Shifting Internet Population: A New Look at "
953 "Internet Access and the Digital Divide,\" Pew Internet and American Life "
954 "Project, 15 April 2003: 6, available at <ulink "
955 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #2</ulink>."
958 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
959 #: freeculture.xml:773
961 "There's no single inventor of the Internet. Nor is there any good date upon "
962 "which to mark its birth. Yet in a very short time, the Internet has become "
963 "part of ordinary American life. According to the Pew Internet and American "
964 "Life Project, 58 percent of Americans had access to the Internet in 2002, up "
965 "from 49 percent two years before.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
966 "That number could well exceed two thirds of the nation by the end of 2004."
969 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
970 #: freeculture.xml:788
972 "As the Internet has been integrated into ordinary life, it has changed "
973 "things. Some of these changes are technical—the Internet has made "
974 "communication faster, it has lowered the cost of gathering data, and so "
975 "on. These technical changes are not the focus of this book. They are "
976 "important. They are not well understood. But they are the sort of thing that "
977 "would simply go away if we all just switched the Internet off. They don't "
978 "affect people who don't use the Internet, or at least they don't affect them "
979 "directly. They are the proper subject of a book about the Internet. But this "
980 "is not a book about the Internet."
983 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
984 #: freeculture.xml:799
986 "Instead, this book is about an effect of the Internet beyond the Internet "
987 "itself: an effect upon how culture is made. My claim is that the Internet "
988 "has induced an important and unrecognized change in that process. That "
989 "change will radically transform a tradition that is as old as the Republic "
990 "itself. Most, if they recognized this change, would reject it. Yet most "
991 "don't even see the change that the Internet has introduced."
994 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
995 #: freeculture.xml:818
999 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
1000 #: freeculture.xml:819
1001 msgid "Webster, Noah"
1004 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1005 #: freeculture.xml:808
1007 "We can glimpse a sense of this change by distinguishing between commercial "
1008 "and noncommercial culture, and by mapping the law's regulation of each. By "
1009 "\"commercial culture\" I mean that part of our culture that is produced and "
1010 "sold or produced to be sold. By \"noncommercial culture\" I mean all the "
1011 "rest. When old men sat around parks or on street corners telling stories "
1012 "that kids and others consumed, that was noncommercial culture. When Noah "
1013 "Webster published his \"Reader,\" or Joel Barlow his poetry, that was "
1014 "commercial culture. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
1015 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
1018 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1019 #: freeculture.xml:822
1021 "At the beginning of our history, and for just about the whole of our "
1022 "tradition, noncommercial culture was essentially unregulated. Of course, if "
1023 "your stories were lewd, or if your song disturbed the peace, then the law "
1024 "might intervene. But the law was never directly concerned with the creation "
1025 "or spread of this form of culture, and it left this culture \"free.\" The "
1026 "ordinary ways in which ordinary individuals shared and transformed their "
1027 "culture—telling stories, reenacting scenes from plays or TV, "
1028 "participating in fan clubs, sharing music, making tapes—were left "
1032 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
1033 #: freeculture.xml:847 freeculture.xml:1867 freeculture.xml:1878
1034 msgid "Brandeis, Louis D."
1037 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1038 #: freeculture.xml:839
1040 "This is not the only purpose of copyright, though it is the overwhelmingly "
1041 "primary purpose of the copyright established in the federal constitution. "
1042 "State copyright law historically protected not just the commercial interest "
1043 "in publication, but also a privacy interest. By granting authors the "
1044 "exclusive right to first publication, state copyright law gave authors the "
1045 "power to control the spread of facts about them. See Samuel D. Warren and "
1046 "Louis D. Brandeis, \"The Right to Privacy,\" Harvard Law Review 4 (1890): "
1047 "193, 198–200. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
1050 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1051 #: freeculture.xml:833
1053 "The focus of the law was on commercial creativity. At first slightly, then "
1054 "quite extensively, the law protected the incentives of creators by granting "
1055 "them exclusive rights to their creative work, so that they could sell those "
1056 "exclusive rights in a commercial marketplace.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
1057 "id=\"0\"/> This is also, of course, an important part of creativity and "
1058 "culture, and it has become an increasingly important part in America. But in "
1059 "no sense was it dominant within our tradition. It was instead just one part, "
1060 "a controlled part, balanced with the free."
1063 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
1064 #: freeculture.xml:859 freeculture.xml:9375
1065 msgid "Litman, Jessica"
1068 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1069 #: freeculture.xml:857
1071 "See Jessica Litman, <citetitle>Digital Copyright</citetitle> (New York: "
1072 "Prometheus Books, 2001), ch. 13. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
1075 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1076 #: freeculture.xml:855
1078 "This rough divide between the free and the controlled has now been "
1079 "erased.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The Internet has set the "
1080 "stage for this erasure and, pushed by big media, the law has now affected "
1081 "it. For the first time in our tradition, the ordinary ways in which "
1082 "individuals create and share culture fall within the reach of the regulation "
1083 "of the law, which has expanded to draw within its control a vast amount of "
1084 "culture and creativity that it never reached before. The technology that "
1085 "preserved the balance of our history—between uses of our culture that "
1086 "were free and uses of our culture that were only upon permission—has "
1087 "been undone. The consequence is that we are less and less a free culture, "
1088 "more and more a permission culture."
1091 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1092 #: freeculture.xml:874
1094 "This change gets justified as necessary to protect commercial creativity. "
1095 "And indeed, protectionism is precisely its motivation. But the protectionism "
1096 "that justifies the changes that I will describe below is not the limited and "
1097 "balanced sort that has defined the law in the past. This is not a "
1098 "protectionism to protect artists. It is instead a protectionism to protect "
1099 "certain forms of business. Corporations threatened by the potential of the "
1100 "Internet to change the way both commercial and noncommercial culture are "
1101 "made and shared have united to induce lawmakers to use the law to protect "
1102 "them. It is the story of RCA and Armstrong; it is the dream of the Causbys."
1105 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1106 #: freeculture.xml:887
1108 "For the Internet has unleashed an extraordinary possibility for many to "
1109 "participate in the process of building and cultivating a culture that "
1110 "reaches far beyond local boundaries. That power has changed the marketplace "
1111 "for making and cultivating culture generally, and that change in turn "
1112 "threatens established content industries. The Internet is thus to the "
1113 "industries that built and distributed content in the twentieth century what "
1114 "FM radio was to AM radio, or what the truck was to the railroad industry of "
1115 "the nineteenth century: the beginning of the end, or at least a substantial "
1116 "transformation. Digital technologies, tied to the Internet, could produce a "
1117 "vastly more competitive and vibrant market for building and cultivating "
1118 "culture; that market could include a much wider and more diverse range of "
1119 "creators; those creators could produce and distribute a much more vibrant "
1120 "range of creativity; and depending upon a few important factors, those "
1121 "creators could earn more on average from this system than creators do "
1122 "today—all so long as the RCAs of our day don't use the law to protect "
1123 "themselves against this competition."
1126 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1127 #: freeculture.xml:906
1129 "Yet, as I argue in the pages that follow, that is precisely what is "
1130 "happening in our culture today. These modern-day equivalents of the early "
1131 "twentieth-century radio or nineteenth-century railroads are using their "
1132 "power to get the law to protect them against this new, more efficient, more "
1133 "vibrant technology for building culture. They are succeeding in their plan "
1134 "to remake the Internet before the Internet remakes them."
1137 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1138 #: freeculture.xml:923
1140 "Amy Harmon, \"Black Hawk Download: Moving Beyond Music, Pirates Use New "
1141 "Tools to Turn the Net into an Illicit Video Club,\" <citetitle>New York "
1142 "Times</citetitle>, 17 January 2002."
1145 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1146 #: freeculture.xml:915
1148 "It doesn't seem this way to many. The battles over copyright and the "
1149 "Internet seem remote to most. To the few who follow them, they seem mainly "
1150 "about a much simpler brace of questions—whether \"piracy\" will be "
1151 "permitted, and whether \"property\" will be protected. The \"war\" that has "
1152 "been waged against the technologies of the Internet—what Motion "
1153 "Picture Association of America (MPAA) president Jack Valenti calls his \"own "
1154 "terrorist war\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>—has been "
1155 "framed as a battle about the rule of law and respect for property. To know "
1156 "which side to take in this war, most think that we need only decide whether "
1157 "we're for property or against it."
1160 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1161 #: freeculture.xml:932
1163 "If those really were the choices, then I would be with Jack Valenti and the "
1164 "content industry. I, too, am a believer in property, and especially in the "
1165 "importance of what Mr. Valenti nicely calls \"creative property.\" I believe "
1166 "that \"piracy\" is wrong, and that the law, properly tuned, should punish "
1167 "\"piracy,\" whether on or off the Internet."
1170 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1171 #: freeculture.xml:940
1173 "But those simple beliefs mask a much more fundamental question and a much "
1174 "more dramatic change. My fear is that unless we come to see this change, the "
1175 "war to rid the world of Internet \"pirates\" will also rid our culture of "
1176 "values that have been integral to our tradition from the start."
1179 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
1180 #: freeculture.xml:954 freeculture.xml:14192
1181 msgid "Netanel, Neil Weinstock"
1184 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1185 #: freeculture.xml:952
1187 "Neil W. Netanel, \"Copyright and a Democratic Civil Society,\" "
1188 "<citetitle>Yale Law Journal</citetitle> 106 (1996): 283. <placeholder "
1189 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
1192 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1193 #: freeculture.xml:946
1195 "These values built a tradition that, for at least the first 180 years of our "
1196 "Republic, guaranteed creators the right to build freely upon their past, and "
1197 "protected creators and innovators from either state or private control. The "
1198 "First Amendment protected creators against state control. And as Professor "
1199 "Neil Netanel powerfully argues,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
1200 "copyright law, properly balanced, protected creators against private "
1201 "control. Our tradition was thus neither Soviet nor the tradition of "
1202 "patrons. It instead carved out a wide berth within which creators could "
1203 "cultivate and extend our culture."
1206 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1207 #: freeculture.xml:962
1209 "Yet the law's response to the Internet, when tied to changes in the "
1210 "technology of the Internet itself, has massively increased the effective "
1211 "regulation of creativity in America. To build upon or critique the culture "
1212 "around us one must ask, Oliver Twist–like, for permission first. "
1213 "Permission is, of course, often granted—but it is not often granted to "
1214 "the critical or the independent. We have built a kind of cultural nobility; "
1215 "those within the noble class live easily; those outside it don't. But it is "
1216 "nobility of any form that is alien to our tradition."
1219 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1220 #: freeculture.xml:974
1222 "The story that follows is about this war. Is it not about the \"centrality "
1223 "of technology\" to ordinary life. I don't believe in gods, digital or "
1224 "otherwise. Nor is it an effort to demonize any individual or group, for "
1225 "neither do I believe in a devil, corporate or otherwise. It is not a "
1226 "morality tale. Nor is it a call to jihad against an industry."
1229 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1230 #: freeculture.xml:982
1232 "It is instead an effort to understand a hopelessly destructive war inspired "
1233 "by the technologies of the Internet but reaching far beyond its code. And by "
1234 "understanding this battle, it is an effort to map peace. There is no good "
1235 "reason for the current struggle around Internet technologies to "
1236 "continue. There will be great harm to our tradition and culture if it is "
1237 "allowed to continue unchecked. We must come to understand the source of this "
1238 "war. We must resolve it soon."
1241 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1242 #: freeculture.xml:993
1244 "Like the Causbys' battle, this war is, in part, about \"property.\" The "
1245 "property of this war is not as tangible as the Causbys', and no innocent "
1246 "chicken has yet to lose its life. Yet the ideas surrounding this "
1247 "\"property\" are as obvious to most as the Causbys' claim about the "
1248 "sacredness of their farm was to them. We are the Causbys. Most of us take "
1249 "for granted the extraordinarily powerful claims that the owners of "
1250 "\"intellectual property\" now assert. Most of us, like the Causbys, treat "
1251 "these claims as obvious. And hence we, like the Causbys, object when a new "
1252 "technology interferes with this property. It is as plain to us as it was to "
1253 "them that the new technologies of the Internet are \"trespassing\" upon "
1254 "legitimate claims of \"property.\" It is as plain to us as it was to them "
1255 "that the law should intervene to stop this trespass."
1259 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1260 #: freeculture.xml:1010
1262 "And thus, when geeks and technologists defend their Armstrong or Wright "
1263 "brothers technology, most of us are simply unsympathetic. Common sense does "
1264 "not revolt. Unlike in the case of the unlucky Causbys, common sense is on "
1265 "the side of the property owners in this war. Unlike the lucky Wright "
1266 "brothers, the Internet has not inspired a revolution on its side."
1269 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1270 #: freeculture.xml:1020
1272 "My hope is to push this common sense along. I have become increasingly "
1273 "amazed by the power of this idea of intellectual property and, more "
1274 "importantly, its power to disable critical thought by policy makers and "
1275 "citizens. There has never been a time in our history when more of our "
1276 "\"culture\" was as \"owned\" as it is now. And yet there has never been a "
1277 "time when the concentration of power to control the "
1278 "<emphasis>uses</emphasis> of culture has been as unquestioningly accepted as "
1282 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1283 #: freeculture.xml:1030
1285 "The puzzle is, Why? Is it because we have come to understand a truth about "
1286 "the value and importance of absolute property over ideas and culture? Is it "
1287 "because we have discovered that our tradition of rejecting such an absolute "
1291 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1292 #: freeculture.xml:1036
1294 "Or is it because the idea of absolute property over ideas and culture "
1295 "benefits the RCAs of our time and fits our own unreflective intuitions?"
1298 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1299 #: freeculture.xml:1040
1301 "Is the radical shift away from our tradition of free culture an instance of "
1302 "America correcting a mistake from its past, as we did after a bloody war "
1303 "with slavery, and as we are slowly doing with inequality? Or is the radical "
1304 "shift away from our tradition of free culture yet another example of a "
1305 "political system captured by a few powerful special interests?"
1308 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1309 #: freeculture.xml:1047
1311 "Does common sense lead to the extremes on this question because common sense "
1312 "actually believes in these extremes? Or does common sense stand silent in "
1313 "the face of these extremes because, as with Armstrong versus RCA, the more "
1314 "powerful side has ensured that it has the more powerful view?"
1318 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1319 #: freeculture.xml:1056
1321 "I don't mean to be mysterious. My own views are resolved. I believe it was "
1322 "right for common sense to revolt against the extremism of the Causbys. I "
1323 "believe it would be right for common sense to revolt against the extreme "
1324 "claims made today on behalf of \"intellectual property.\" What the law "
1325 "demands today is increasingly as silly as a sheriff arresting an airplane "
1326 "for trespass. But the consequences of this silliness will be much more "
1330 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1331 #: freeculture.xml:1066
1333 "The struggle that rages just now centers on two ideas: \"piracy\" and "
1334 "\"property.\" My aim in this book's next two parts is to explore these two "
1338 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1339 #: freeculture.xml:1071
1341 "My method is not the usual method of an academic. I don't want to plunge you "
1342 "into a complex argument, buttressed with references to obscure French "
1343 "theorists—however natural that is for the weird sort we academics have "
1344 "become. Instead I begin in each part with a collection of stories that set a "
1345 "context within which these apparently simple ideas can be more fully "
1349 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1350 #: freeculture.xml:1079
1352 "The two sections set up the core claim of this book: that while the Internet "
1353 "has indeed produced something fantastic and new, our government, pushed by "
1354 "big media to respond to this \"something new,\" is destroying something very "
1355 "old. Rather than understanding the changes the Internet might permit, and "
1356 "rather than taking time to let \"common sense\" resolve how best to respond, "
1357 "we are allowing those most threatened by the changes to use their power to "
1358 "change the law—and more importantly, to use their power to change "
1359 "something fundamental about who we have always been."
1362 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1363 #: freeculture.xml:1090
1365 "We allow this, I believe, not because it is right, and not because most of "
1366 "us really believe in these changes. We allow it because the interests most "
1367 "threatened are among the most powerful players in our depressingly "
1368 "compromised process of making law. This book is the story of one more "
1369 "consequence of this form of corruption—a consequence to which most of "
1370 "us remain oblivious."
1373 #. type: Content of: <book><part><title>
1374 #: freeculture.xml:1100
1378 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1379 #: freeculture.xml:1104 freeculture.xml:4741
1380 msgid "Mansfield, William Murray, Lord"
1383 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1384 #: freeculture.xml:1107
1386 "Since the inception of the law regulating creative property, there has been "
1387 "a war against \"piracy.\" The precise contours of this concept, \"piracy,\" "
1388 "are hard to sketch, but the animating injustice is easy to capture. As Lord "
1389 "Mansfield wrote in a case that extended the reach of English copyright law "
1390 "to include sheet music,"
1394 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
1395 #: freeculture.xml:1119
1397 "<citetitle>Bach</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Longman</citetitle>, 98 "
1398 "Eng. Rep. 1274 (1777) (Mansfield)."
1401 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><blockquote><para>
1402 #: freeculture.xml:1115
1404 "A person may use the copy by playing it, but he has no right to rob the "
1405 "author of the profit, by multiplying copies and disposing of them for his "
1406 "own use.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
1410 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1411 #: freeculture.xml:1125
1413 "Today we are in the middle of another \"war\" against \"piracy.\" The "
1414 "Internet has provoked this war. The Internet makes possible the efficient "
1415 "spread of content. Peer-to-peer (p2p) file sharing is among the most "
1416 "efficient of the efficient technologies the Internet enables. Using "
1417 "distributed intelligence, p2p systems facilitate the easy spread of content "
1418 "in a way unimagined a generation ago."
1421 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1422 #: freeculture.xml:1134
1424 "This efficiency does not respect the traditional lines of copyright. The "
1425 "network doesn't discriminate between the sharing of copyrighted and "
1426 "uncopyrighted content. Thus has there been a vast amount of sharing of "
1427 "copyrighted content. That sharing in turn has excited the war, as copyright "
1428 "owners fear the sharing will \"rob the author of the profit.\""
1431 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1432 #: freeculture.xml:1142
1434 "The warriors have turned to the courts, to the legislatures, and "
1435 "increasingly to technology to defend their \"property\" against this "
1436 "\"piracy.\" A generation of Americans, the warriors warn, is being raised to "
1437 "believe that \"property\" should be \"free.\" Forget tattoos, never mind "
1438 "body piercing—our kids are becoming <emphasis>thieves</emphasis>!"
1441 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1442 #: freeculture.xml:1150
1444 "There's no doubt that \"piracy\" is wrong, and that pirates should be "
1445 "punished. But before we summon the executioners, we should put this notion "
1446 "of \"piracy\" in some context. For as the concept is increasingly used, at "
1447 "its core is an extraordinary idea that is almost certainly wrong."
1450 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1451 #: freeculture.xml:1156
1452 msgid "The idea goes something like this:"
1455 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><blockquote><para>
1456 #: freeculture.xml:1160
1458 "Creative work has value; whenever I use, or take, or build upon the creative "
1459 "work of others, I am taking from them something of value. Whenever I take "
1460 "something of value from someone else, I should have their permission. The "
1461 "taking of something of value from someone else without permission is "
1462 "wrong. It is a form of piracy."
1465 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><indexterm><primary>
1466 #: freeculture.xml:1168
1467 msgid "Dreyfuss, Rochelle"
1471 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para>
1472 #: freeculture.xml:1174
1474 "See Rochelle Dreyfuss, \"Expressive Genericity: Trademarks as Language in "
1475 "the Pepsi Generation,\" <citetitle>Notre Dame Law Review</citetitle> 65 "
1479 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
1480 #: freeculture.xml:1187 freeculture.xml:6839
1481 msgid "Zittrain, Jonathan"
1484 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para>
1485 #: freeculture.xml:1182
1487 "Lisa Bannon, \"The Birds May Sing, but Campers Can't Unless They Pay Up,\" "
1488 "<citetitle>Wall Street Journal</citetitle>, 21 August 1996, available at "
1489 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #3</ulink>; Jonathan "
1490 "Zittrain, \"Calling Off the Copyright War: In Battle of Property vs. Free "
1491 "Speech, No One Wins,\" <citetitle>Boston Globe</citetitle>, 24 November "
1492 "2002. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
1495 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1496 #: freeculture.xml:1170
1498 "This view runs deep within the current debates. It is what NYU law professor "
1499 "Rochelle Dreyfuss criticizes as the \"if value, then right\" theory of "
1500 "creative property<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> —if there "
1501 "is value, then someone must have a right to that value. It is the "
1502 "perspective that led a composers' rights organization, ASCAP, to sue the "
1503 "Girl Scouts for failing to pay for the songs that girls sang around Girl "
1504 "Scout campfires.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> There was "
1505 "\"value\" (the songs) so there must have been a \"right\"—even against "
1509 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><indexterm><primary>
1510 #: freeculture.xml:1192
1515 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1516 #: freeculture.xml:1194
1518 "This idea is certainly a possible understanding of how creative property "
1519 "should work. It might well be a possible design for a system of law "
1520 "protecting creative property. But the \"if value, then right\" theory of "
1521 "creative property has never been America's theory of creative property. It "
1522 "has never taken hold within our law."
1525 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1526 #: freeculture.xml:1202
1528 "Instead, in our tradition, intellectual property is an instrument. It sets "
1529 "the groundwork for a richly creative society but remains subservient to the "
1530 "value of creativity. The current debate has this turned around. We have "
1531 "become so concerned with protecting the instrument that we are losing sight "
1535 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1536 #: freeculture.xml:1209
1538 "The source of this confusion is a distinction that the law no longer takes "
1539 "care to draw—the distinction between republishing someone's work on "
1540 "the one hand and building upon or transforming that work on the "
1541 "other. Copyright law at its birth had only publishing as its concern; "
1542 "copyright law today regulates both."
1545 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1546 #: freeculture.xml:1216
1548 "Before the technologies of the Internet, this conflation didn't matter all "
1549 "that much. The technologies of publishing were expensive; that meant the "
1550 "vast majority of publishing was commercial. Commercial entities could bear "
1551 "the burden of the law—even the burden of the Byzantine complexity that "
1552 "copyright law has become. It was just one more expense of doing business."
1555 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
1556 #: freeculture.xml:1223 freeculture.xml:1251
1557 msgid "Florida, Richard"
1560 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para>
1561 #: freeculture.xml:1244
1563 "In <citetitle>The Rise of the Creative Class</citetitle> (New York: Basic "
1564 "Books, 2002), Richard Florida documents a shift in the nature of labor "
1565 "toward a labor of creativity. His work, however, doesn't directly address "
1566 "the legal conditions under which that creativity is enabled or stifled. I "
1567 "certainly agree with him about the importance and significance of this "
1568 "change, but I also believe the conditions under which it will be enabled are "
1569 "much more tenuous. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
1572 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1573 #: freeculture.xml:1225
1575 "But with the birth of the Internet, this natural limit to the reach of the "
1576 "law has disappeared. The law controls not just the creativity of commercial "
1577 "creators but effectively that of anyone. Although that expansion would not "
1578 "matter much if copyright law regulated only \"copying,\" when the law "
1579 "regulates as broadly and obscurely as it does, the extension matters a "
1580 "lot. The burden of this law now vastly outweighs any original "
1581 "benefit—certainly as it affects noncommercial creativity, and "
1582 "increasingly as it affects commercial creativity as well. Thus, as we'll see "
1583 "more clearly in the chapters below, the law's role is less and less to "
1584 "support creativity, and more and more to protect certain industries against "
1585 "competition. Just at the time digital technology could unleash an "
1586 "extraordinary range of commercial and noncommercial creativity, the law "
1587 "burdens this creativity with insanely complex and vague rules and with the "
1588 "threat of obscenely severe penalties. We may be seeing, as Richard Florida "
1589 "writes, the \"Rise of the Creative Class.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
1590 "id=\"0\"/> Unfortunately, we are also seeing an extraordinary rise of "
1591 "regulation of this creative class."
1594 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1595 #: freeculture.xml:1257
1597 "These burdens make no sense in our tradition. We should begin by "
1598 "understanding that tradition a bit more and by placing in their proper "
1599 "context the current battles about behavior labeled \"piracy.\""
1602 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
1603 #: freeculture.xml:1265
1604 msgid "CHAPTER ONE: Creators"
1607 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1608 #: freeculture.xml:1267
1610 "In 1928, a cartoon character was born. An early Mickey Mouse made his debut "
1611 "in May of that year, in a silent flop called <citetitle>Plane "
1612 "Crazy</citetitle>. In November, in New York City's Colony Theater, in the "
1613 "first widely distributed cartoon synchronized with sound, "
1614 "<citetitle>Steamboat Willie</citetitle> brought to life the character that "
1615 "would become Mickey Mouse."
1618 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1619 #: freeculture.xml:1274
1621 "Synchronized sound had been introduced to film a year earlier in the movie "
1622 "<citetitle>The Jazz Singer</citetitle>. That success led Walt Disney to copy "
1623 "the technique and mix sound with cartoons. No one knew whether it would work "
1624 "or, if it did work, whether it would win an audience. But when Disney ran a "
1625 "test in the summer of 1928, the results were unambiguous. As Disney "
1626 "describes that first experiment,"
1630 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
1631 #: freeculture.xml:1283
1633 "A couple of my boys could read music, and one of them could play a mouth "
1634 "organ. We put them in a room where they could not see the screen and "
1635 "arranged to pipe their sound into the room where our wives and friends were "
1636 "going to see the picture."
1639 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
1640 #: freeculture.xml:1290
1642 "The boys worked from a music and sound-effects score. After several false "
1643 "starts, sound and action got off with the gun. The mouth organist played the "
1644 "tune, the rest of us in the sound department bammed tin pans and blew slide "
1645 "whistles on the beat. The synchronization was pretty close."
1649 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
1650 #: freeculture.xml:1303
1652 "Leonard Maltin, <citetitle>Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated "
1653 "Cartoons</citetitle> (New York: Penguin Books, 1987), 34–35."
1656 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
1657 #: freeculture.xml:1297
1659 "The effect on our little audience was nothing less than electric. They "
1660 "responded almost instinctively to this union of sound and motion. I thought "
1661 "they were kidding me. So they put me in the audience and ran the action "
1662 "again. It was terrible, but it was wonderful! And it was something "
1663 "new!<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
1666 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
1667 #: freeculture.xml:1312
1671 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1672 #: freeculture.xml:1309
1674 "Disney's then partner, and one of animation's most extraordinary talents, Ub "
1675 "Iwerks, put it more strongly: \"I have never been so thrilled in my "
1676 "life. Nothing since has ever equaled it.\" <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
1680 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1681 #: freeculture.xml:1315
1683 "Disney had created something very new, based upon something relatively "
1684 "new. Synchronized sound brought life to a form of creativity that had "
1685 "rarely—except in Disney's hands—been anything more than filler "
1686 "for other films. Throughout animation's early history, it was Disney's "
1687 "invention that set the standard that others struggled to match. And quite "
1688 "often, Disney's great genius, his spark of creativity, was built upon the "
1692 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1693 #: freeculture.xml:1324
1695 "This much is familiar. What you might not know is that 1928 also marks "
1696 "another important transition. In that year, a comic (as opposed to cartoon) "
1697 "genius created his last independently produced silent film. That genius was "
1698 "Buster Keaton. The film was <citetitle>Steamboat Bill, Jr</citetitle>."
1701 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1702 #: freeculture.xml:1330
1704 "Keaton was born into a vaudeville family in 1895. In the era of silent film, "
1705 "he had mastered using broad physical comedy as a way to spark uncontrollable "
1706 "laughter from his audience. <citetitle>Steamboat Bill, Jr</citetitle>. was a "
1707 "classic of this form, famous among film buffs for its incredible stunts. "
1708 "The film was classic Keaton—wildly popular and among the best of its "
1713 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1714 #: freeculture.xml:1344
1716 "I am grateful to David Gerstein and his careful history, described at <ulink "
1717 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #4</ulink>. According to Dave "
1718 "Smith of the Disney Archives, Disney paid royalties to use the music for "
1719 "five songs in <citetitle>Steamboat Willie</citetitle>: \"Steamboat Bill,\" "
1720 "\"The Simpleton\" (Delille), \"Mischief Makers\" (Carbonara), \"Joyful Hurry "
1721 "No. 1\" (Baron), and \"Gawky Rube\" (Lakay). A sixth song, \"The Turkey in "
1722 "the Straw,\" was already in the public domain. Letter from David Smith to "
1723 "Harry Surden, 10 July 2003, on file with author."
1726 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1727 #: freeculture.xml:1338
1729 "<citetitle>Steamboat Bill, Jr</citetitle>. appeared before Disney's cartoon "
1730 "Steamboat Willie. The coincidence of titles is not coincidental. Steamboat "
1731 "Willie is a direct cartoon parody of Steamboat Bill,<placeholder "
1732 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> and both are built upon a common song as a "
1733 "source. It is not just from the invention of synchronized sound in "
1734 "<citetitle>The Jazz Singer</citetitle> that we get <citetitle>Steamboat "
1735 "Willie</citetitle>. It is also from Buster Keaton's invention of Steamboat "
1736 "Bill, Jr., itself inspired by the song \"Steamboat Bill,\" that we get "
1737 "Steamboat Willie, and then from Steamboat Willie, Mickey Mouse."
1741 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1742 #: freeculture.xml:1365
1744 "He was also a fan of the public domain. See Chris Sprigman, \"The Mouse that "
1745 "Ate the Public Domain,\" Findlaw, 5 March 2002, at <ulink "
1746 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #5</ulink>."
1749 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1750 #: freeculture.xml:1361
1752 "This \"borrowing\" was nothing unique, either for Disney or for the "
1753 "industry. Disney was always parroting the feature-length mainstream films of "
1754 "his day.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> So did many others. Early "
1755 "cartoons are filled with knockoffs—slight variations on winning "
1756 "themes; retellings of ancient stories. The key to success was the brilliance "
1757 "of the differences. With Disney, it was sound that gave his animation its "
1758 "spark. Later, it was the quality of his work relative to the production-line "
1759 "cartoons with which he competed. Yet these additions were built upon a base "
1760 "that was borrowed. Disney added to the work of others before him, creating "
1761 "something new out of something just barely old."
1764 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1765 #: freeculture.xml:1380
1767 "Sometimes this borrowing was slight. Sometimes it was significant. Think "
1768 "about the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. If you're as oblivious as I "
1769 "was, you're likely to think that these tales are happy, sweet stories, "
1770 "appropriate for any child at bedtime. In fact, the Grimm fairy tales are, "
1771 "well, for us, grim. It is a rare and perhaps overly ambitious parent who "
1772 "would dare to read these bloody, moralistic stories to his or her child, at "
1773 "bedtime or anytime."
1777 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1778 #: freeculture.xml:1389
1780 "Disney took these stories and retold them in a way that carried them into a "
1781 "new age. He animated the stories, with both characters and light. Without "
1782 "removing the elements of fear and danger altogether, he made funny what was "
1783 "dark and injected a genuine emotion of compassion where before there was "
1784 "fear. And not just with the work of the Brothers Grimm. Indeed, the catalog "
1785 "of Disney work drawing upon the work of others is astonishing when set "
1786 "together: <citetitle>Snow White</citetitle> (1937), "
1787 "<citetitle>Fantasia</citetitle> (1940), <citetitle>Pinocchio</citetitle> "
1788 "(1940), <citetitle>Dumbo</citetitle> (1941), <citetitle>Bambi</citetitle> "
1789 "(1942), <citetitle>Song of the South</citetitle> (1946), "
1790 "<citetitle>Cinderella</citetitle> (1950), <citetitle>Alice in "
1791 "Wonderland</citetitle> (1951), <citetitle>Robin Hood</citetitle> (1952), "
1792 "<citetitle>Peter Pan</citetitle> (1953), <citetitle>Lady and the "
1793 "Tramp</citetitle> (1955), <citetitle>Mulan</citetitle> (1998), "
1794 "<citetitle>Sleeping Beauty</citetitle> (1959), <citetitle>101 "
1795 "Dalmatians</citetitle> (1961), <citetitle>The Sword in the Stone</citetitle> "
1796 "(1963), and <citetitle>The Jungle Book</citetitle> (1967)—not to "
1797 "mention a recent example that we should perhaps quickly forget, "
1798 "<citetitle>Treasure Planet</citetitle> (2003). In all of these cases, Disney "
1799 "(or Disney, Inc.) ripped creativity from the culture around him, mixed that "
1800 "creativity with his own extraordinary talent, and then burned that mix into "
1801 "the soul of his culture. Rip, mix, and burn."
1804 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1805 #: freeculture.xml:1411
1807 "This is a kind of creativity. It is a creativity that we should remember and "
1808 "celebrate. There are some who would say that there is no creativity except "
1809 "this kind. We don't need to go that far to recognize its importance. We "
1810 "could call this \"Disney creativity,\" though that would be a bit "
1811 "misleading. It is, more precisely, \"Walt Disney creativity\"—a form "
1812 "of expression and genius that builds upon the culture around us and makes it "
1813 "something different."
1817 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1818 #: freeculture.xml:1425
1820 "Until 1976, copyright law granted an author the possibility of two terms: an "
1821 "initial term and a renewal term. I have calculated the \"average\" term by "
1822 "determining the weighted average of total registrations for any particular "
1823 "year, and the proportion renewing. Thus, if 100 copyrights are registered in "
1824 "year 1, and only 15 are renewed, and the renewal term is 28 years, then the "
1825 "average term is 32.2 years. For the renewal data and other relevant data, "
1826 "see the Web site associated with this book, available at <ulink "
1827 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #6</ulink>."
1830 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1831 #: freeculture.xml:1419
1833 "In 1928, the culture that Disney was free to draw upon was relatively "
1834 "fresh. The public domain in 1928 was not very old and was therefore quite "
1835 "vibrant. The average term of copyright was just around thirty "
1836 "years—for that minority of creative work that was in fact "
1837 "copyrighted.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> That means that for "
1838 "thirty years, on average, the authors or copyright holders of a creative "
1839 "work had an \"exclusive right\" to control certain uses of the work. To use "
1840 "this copyrighted work in limited ways required the permission of the "
1844 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1845 #: freeculture.xml:1442
1847 "At the end of a copyright term, a work passes into the public domain. No "
1848 "permission is then needed to draw upon or use that work. No permission and, "
1849 "hence, no lawyers. The public domain is a \"lawyer-free zone.\" Thus, most "
1850 "of the content from the nineteenth century was free for Disney to use and "
1851 "build upon in 1928. It was free for anyone— whether connected or not, "
1852 "whether rich or not, whether approved or not—to use and build upon."
1856 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1857 #: freeculture.xml:1451
1859 "This is the ways things always were—until quite recently. For most of "
1860 "our history, the public domain was just over the horizon. From until 1978, "
1861 "the average copyright term was never more than thirty-two years, meaning "
1862 "that most culture just a generation and a half old was free for anyone to "
1863 "build upon without the permission of anyone else. Today's equivalent would "
1864 "be for creative work from the 1960s and 1970s to now be free for the next "
1865 "Walt Disney to build upon without permission. Yet today, the public domain "
1866 "is presumptive only for content from before the Great Depression."
1869 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1870 #: freeculture.xml:1464
1872 "Of course, Walt Disney had no monopoly on \"Walt Disney creativity.\" Nor "
1873 "does America. The norm of free culture has, until recently, and except "
1874 "within totalitarian nations, been broadly exploited and quite universal."
1877 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1878 #: freeculture.xml:1470
1880 "Consider, for example, a form of creativity that seems strange to many "
1881 "Americans but that is inescapable within Japanese culture: "
1882 "<citetitle>manga</citetitle>, or comics. The Japanese are fanatics about "
1883 "comics. Some 40 percent of publications are comics, and 30 percent of "
1884 "publication revenue derives from comics. They are everywhere in Japanese "
1885 "society, at every magazine stand, carried by a large proportion of commuters "
1886 "on Japan's extraordinary system of public transportation."
1889 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1890 #: freeculture.xml:1479
1892 "Americans tend to look down upon this form of culture. That's an "
1893 "unattractive characteristic of ours. We're likely to misunderstand much "
1894 "about manga, because few of us have ever read anything close to the stories "
1895 "that these \"graphic novels\" tell. For the Japanese, manga cover every "
1896 "aspect of social life. For us, comics are \"men in tights.\" And anyway, "
1897 "it's not as if the New York subways are filled with readers of Joyce or even "
1898 "Hemingway. People of different cultures distract themselves in different "
1899 "ways, the Japanese in this interestingly different way."
1902 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1903 #: freeculture.xml:1490
1905 "But my purpose here is not to understand manga. It is to describe a variant "
1906 "on manga that from a lawyer's perspective is quite odd, but from a Disney "
1907 "perspective is quite familiar."
1911 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1912 #: freeculture.xml:1495
1914 "This is the phenomenon of <citetitle>doujinshi</citetitle>. Doujinshi are "
1915 "also comics, but they are a kind of copycat comic. A rich ethic governs the "
1916 "creation of doujinshi. It is not doujinshi if it is "
1917 "<emphasis>just</emphasis> a copy; the artist must make a contribution to the "
1918 "art he copies, by transforming it either subtly or significantly. A "
1919 "doujinshi comic can thus take a mainstream comic and develop it "
1920 "differently—with a different story line. Or the comic can keep the "
1921 "character in character but change its look slightly. There is no formula for "
1922 "what makes the doujinshi sufficiently \"different.\" But they must be "
1923 "different if they are to be considered true doujinshi. Indeed, there are "
1924 "committees that review doujinshi for inclusion within shows and reject any "
1925 "copycat comic that is merely a copy."
1928 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1929 #: freeculture.xml:1510
1931 "These copycat comics are not a tiny part of the manga market. They are "
1932 "huge. More than 33,000 \"circles\" of creators from across Japan produce "
1933 "these bits of Walt Disney creativity. More than 450,000 Japanese come "
1934 "together twice a year, in the largest public gathering in the country, to "
1935 "exchange and sell them. This market exists in parallel to the mainstream "
1936 "commercial manga market. In some ways, it obviously competes with that "
1937 "market, but there is no sustained effort by those who control the commercial "
1938 "manga market to shut the doujinshi market down. It flourishes, despite the "
1939 "competition and despite the law."
1942 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1943 #: freeculture.xml:1521
1945 "The most puzzling feature of the doujinshi market, for those trained in the "
1946 "law, at least, is that it is allowed to exist at all. Under Japanese "
1947 "copyright law, which in this respect (on paper) mirrors American copyright "
1948 "law, the doujinshi market is an illegal one. Doujinshi are plainly "
1949 "\"derivative works.\" There is no general practice by doujinshi artists of "
1950 "securing the permission of the manga creators. Instead, the practice is "
1951 "simply to take and modify the creations of others, as Walt Disney did with "
1952 "<citetitle>Steamboat Bill, Jr</citetitle>. Under both Japanese and American "
1953 "law, that \"taking\" without the permission of the original copyright owner "
1954 "is illegal. It is an infringement of the original copyright to make a copy "
1955 "or a derivative work without the original copyright owner's permission."
1958 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1959 #: freeculture.xml:1535
1960 msgid "Winick, Judd"
1964 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1965 #: freeculture.xml:1548
1967 "For an excellent history, see Scott McCloud, <citetitle>Reinventing "
1968 "Comics</citetitle> (New York: Perennial, 2000)."
1971 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1972 #: freeculture.xml:1538
1974 "Yet this illegal market exists and indeed flourishes in Japan, and in the "
1975 "view of many, it is precisely because it exists that Japanese manga "
1976 "flourish. As American graphic novelist Judd Winick said to me, \"The early "
1977 "days of comics in America are very much like what's going on in Japan "
1978 "now. … American comics were born out of copying each other. … "
1979 "That's how [the artists] learn to draw—by going into comic books and "
1980 "not tracing them, but looking at them and copying them\" and building from "
1981 "them.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
1984 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1985 #: freeculture.xml:1553
1987 "American comics now are quite different, Winick explains, in part because of "
1988 "the legal difficulty of adapting comics the way doujinshi are "
1989 "allowed. Speaking of Superman, Winick told me, \"there are these rules and "
1990 "you have to stick to them.\" There are things Superman \"cannot\" do. \"As a "
1991 "creator, it's frustrating having to stick to some parameters which are fifty "
1996 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1997 #: freeculture.xml:1570
1999 "See Salil K. Mehra, \"Copyright and Comics in Japan: Does Law Explain Why "
2000 "All the Comics My Kid Watches Are Japanese Imports?\" <citetitle>Rutgers Law "
2001 "Review</citetitle> 55 (2002): 155, 182. \"[T]here might be a collective "
2002 "economic rationality that would lead manga and anime artists to forgo "
2003 "bringing legal actions for infringement. One hypothesis is that all manga "
2004 "artists may be better off collectively if they set aside their individual "
2005 "self-interest and decide not to press their legal rights. This is "
2006 "essentially a prisoner's dilemma solved.\""
2009 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2010 #: freeculture.xml:1562
2012 "The norm in Japan mitigates this legal difficulty. Some say it is precisely "
2013 "the benefit accruing to the Japanese manga market that explains the "
2014 "mitigation. Temple University law professor Salil Mehra, for example, "
2015 "hypothesizes that the manga market accepts these technical violations "
2016 "because they spur the manga market to be more wealthy and "
2017 "productive. Everyone would be worse off if doujinshi were banned, so the law "
2018 "does not ban doujinshi.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
2021 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2022 #: freeculture.xml:1581
2024 "The problem with this story, however, as Mehra plainly acknowledges, is that "
2025 "the mechanism producing this laissez faire response is not clear. It may "
2026 "well be that the market as a whole is better off if doujinshi are permitted "
2027 "rather than banned, but that doesn't explain why individual copyright owners "
2028 "don't sue nonetheless. If the law has no general exception for doujinshi, "
2029 "and indeed in some cases individual manga artists have sued doujinshi "
2030 "artists, why is there not a more general pattern of blocking this \"free "
2031 "taking\" by the doujinshi culture?"
2034 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2035 #: freeculture.xml:1592
2037 "I spent four wonderful months in Japan, and I asked this question as often "
2038 "as I could. Perhaps the best account in the end was offered by a friend from "
2039 "a major Japanese law firm. \"We don't have enough lawyers,\" he told me one "
2040 "afternoon. There \"just aren't enough resources to prosecute cases like "
2045 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2046 #: freeculture.xml:1599
2048 "This is a theme to which we will return: that regulation by law is a "
2049 "function of both the words on the books and the costs of making those words "
2050 "have effect. For now, focus on the obvious question that is begged: Would "
2051 "Japan be better off with more lawyers? Would manga be richer if doujinshi "
2052 "artists were regularly prosecuted? Would the Japanese gain something "
2053 "important if they could end this practice of uncompensated sharing? Does "
2054 "piracy here hurt the victims of the piracy, or does it help them? Would "
2055 "lawyers fighting this piracy help their clients or hurt them? Let's pause "
2059 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2060 #: freeculture.xml:1612
2062 "If you're like I was a decade ago, or like most people are when they first "
2063 "start thinking about these issues, then just about now you should be puzzled "
2064 "about something you hadn't thought through before."
2067 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
2068 #: freeculture.xml:1629 freeculture.xml:2820 freeculture.xml:4446 freeculture.xml:4673 freeculture.xml:7219 freeculture.xml:8295
2069 msgid "Vaidhyanathan, Siva"
2072 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2073 #: freeculture.xml:1622
2075 "The term <citetitle>intellectual property</citetitle> is of relatively "
2076 "recent origin. See Siva Vaidhyanathan, <citetitle>Copyrights and "
2077 "Copywrongs</citetitle>, 11 (New York: New York University Press, 2001). See "
2078 "also Lawrence Lessig, <citetitle>The Future of Ideas</citetitle> (New York: "
2079 "Random House, 2001), 293 n. 26. The term accurately describes a set of "
2080 "\"property\" rights—copyright, patents, trademark, and "
2081 "trade-secret—but the nature of those rights is very different. "
2082 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
2085 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2086 #: freeculture.xml:1617
2088 "We live in a world that celebrates \"property.\" I am one of those "
2089 "celebrants. I believe in the value of property in general, and I also "
2090 "believe in the value of that weird form of property that lawyers call "
2091 "\"intellectual property.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> A large, "
2092 "diverse society cannot survive without property; a large, diverse, and "
2093 "modern society cannot flourish without intellectual property."
2096 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2097 #: freeculture.xml:1636
2099 "But it takes just a second's reflection to realize that there is plenty of "
2100 "value out there that \"property\" doesn't capture. I don't mean \"money "
2101 "can't buy you love,\" but rather, value that is plainly part of a process of "
2102 "production, including commercial as well as noncommercial production. If "
2103 "Disney animators had stolen a set of pencils to draw Steamboat Willie, we'd "
2104 "have no hesitation in condemning that taking as wrong— even though "
2105 "trivial, even if unnoticed. Yet there was nothing wrong, at least under the "
2106 "law of the day, with Disney's taking from Buster Keaton or from the Brothers "
2107 "Grimm. There was nothing wrong with the taking from Keaton because Disney's "
2108 "use would have been considered \"fair.\" There was nothing wrong with the "
2109 "taking from the Grimms because the Grimms' work was in the public domain."
2113 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2114 #: freeculture.xml:1651
2116 "Thus, even though the things that Disney took—or more generally, the "
2117 "things taken by anyone exercising Walt Disney creativity—are valuable, "
2118 "our tradition does not treat those takings as wrong. Some things remain free "
2119 "for the taking within a free culture, and that freedom is good."
2122 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2123 #: freeculture.xml:1660
2125 "The same with the doujinshi culture. If a doujinshi artist broke into a "
2126 "publisher's office and ran off with a thousand copies of his latest "
2127 "work—or even one copy—without paying, we'd have no hesitation in "
2128 "saying the artist was wrong. In addition to having trespassed, he would have "
2129 "stolen something of value. The law bans that stealing in whatever form, "
2130 "whether large or small."
2133 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2134 #: freeculture.xml:1668
2136 "Yet there is an obvious reluctance, even among Japanese lawyers, to say that "
2137 "the copycat comic artists are \"stealing.\" This form of Walt Disney "
2138 "creativity is seen as fair and right, even if lawyers in particular find it "
2142 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2143 #: freeculture.xml:1674
2145 "It's the same with a thousand examples that appear everywhere once you begin "
2146 "to look. Scientists build upon the work of other scientists without asking "
2147 "or paying for the privilege. (\"Excuse me, Professor Einstein, but may I "
2148 "have permission to use your theory of relativity to show that you were wrong "
2149 "about quantum physics?\") Acting companies perform adaptations of the works "
2150 "of Shakespeare without securing permission from anyone. (Does "
2151 "<emphasis>anyone</emphasis> believe Shakespeare would be better spread "
2152 "within our culture if there were a central Shakespeare rights clearinghouse "
2153 "that all productions of Shakespeare must appeal to first?) And Hollywood "
2154 "goes through cycles with a certain kind of movie: five asteroid films in the "
2155 "late 1990s; two volcano disaster films in 1997."
2159 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2160 #: freeculture.xml:1688
2162 "Creators here and everywhere are always and at all times building upon the "
2163 "creativity that went before and that surrounds them now. That building is "
2164 "always and everywhere at least partially done without permission and without "
2165 "compensating the original creator. No society, free or controlled, has ever "
2166 "demanded that every use be paid for or that permission for Walt Disney "
2167 "creativity must always be sought. Instead, every society has left a certain "
2168 "bit of its culture free for the taking—free societies more fully than "
2169 "unfree, perhaps, but all societies to some degree."
2172 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2173 #: freeculture.xml:1699
2175 "The hard question is therefore not <emphasis>whether</emphasis> a culture is "
2176 "free. All cultures are free to some degree. The hard question instead is "
2177 "\"<emphasis>How</emphasis> free is this culture?\" How much, and how "
2178 "broadly, is the culture free for others to take and build upon? Is that "
2179 "freedom limited to party members? To members of the royal family? To the top "
2180 "ten corporations on the New York Stock Exchange? Or is that freedom spread "
2181 "broadly? To artists generally, whether affiliated with the Met or not? To "
2182 "musicians generally, whether white or not? To filmmakers generally, whether "
2183 "affiliated with a studio or not?"
2186 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2187 #: freeculture.xml:1711
2189 "Free cultures are cultures that leave a great deal open for others to build "
2190 "upon; unfree, or permission, cultures leave much less. Ours was a free "
2191 "culture. It is becoming much less so."
2194 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
2195 #: freeculture.xml:1719
2196 msgid "CHAPTER TWO: \"Mere Copyists\""
2199 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2200 #: freeculture.xml:1721
2204 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
2205 #: freeculture.xml:1731
2206 msgid "Daguerre, Louis"
2209 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2210 #: freeculture.xml:1724
2212 "In 1839, Louis Daguerre invented the first practical technology for "
2213 "producing what we would call \"photographs.\" Appropriately enough, they "
2214 "were called \"daguerreotypes.\" The process was complicated and expensive, "
2215 "and the field was thus limited to professionals and a few zealous and "
2216 "wealthy amateurs. (There was even an American Daguerre Association that "
2217 "helped regulate the industry, as do all such associations, by keeping "
2218 "competition down so as to keep prices up.) <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
2222 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
2223 #: freeculture.xml:1743
2224 msgid "Talbot, William"
2227 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2228 #: freeculture.xml:1734
2230 "Yet despite high prices, the demand for daguerreotypes was strong. This "
2231 "pushed inventors to find simpler and cheaper ways to make \"automatic "
2232 "pictures.\" William Talbot soon discovered a process for making "
2233 "\"negatives.\" But because the negatives were glass, and had to be kept wet, "
2234 "the process still remained expensive and cumbersome. In the 1870s, dry "
2235 "plates were developed, making it easier to separate the taking of a picture "
2236 "from its developing. These were still plates of glass, and thus it was still "
2237 "not a process within reach of most amateurs. <placeholder "
2238 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
2241 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2242 #: freeculture.xml:1746
2243 msgid "Eastman, George"
2247 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2248 #: freeculture.xml:1749
2250 "The technological change that made mass photography possible didn't happen "
2251 "until 1888, and was the creation of a single man. George Eastman, himself an "
2252 "amateur photographer, was frustrated by the technology of photographs made "
2253 "with plates. In a flash of insight (so to speak), Eastman saw that if the "
2254 "film could be made to be flexible, it could be held on a single "
2255 "spindle. That roll could then be sent to a developer, driving the costs of "
2256 "photography down substantially. By lowering the costs, Eastman expected he "
2257 "could dramatically broaden the population of photographers."
2261 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2262 #: freeculture.xml:1766
2264 "Reese V. Jenkins, <citetitle>Images and Enterprise</citetitle> (Baltimore: "
2265 "Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975), 112."
2268 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
2269 #: freeculture.xml:1768
2270 msgid "Kodak Primer, The (Eastman)"
2273 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2274 #: freeculture.xml:1761
2276 "Eastman developed flexible, emulsion-coated paper film and placed rolls of "
2277 "it in small, simple cameras: the Kodak. The device was marketed on the basis "
2278 "of its simplicity. \"You press the button and we do the rest.\"<placeholder "
2279 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> As he described in <citetitle>The Kodak "
2280 "Primer</citetitle>: <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
2283 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2284 #: freeculture.xml:1785 freeculture.xml:1808
2288 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
2289 #: freeculture.xml:1783
2291 "Brian Coe, <citetitle>The Birth of Photography</citetitle> (New York: "
2292 "Taplinger Publishing, 1977), 53. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
2295 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
2296 #: freeculture.xml:1772
2298 "The principle of the Kodak system is the separation of the work that any "
2299 "person whomsoever can do in making a photograph, from the work that only an "
2300 "expert can do. … We furnish anybody, man, woman or child, who has "
2301 "sufficient intelligence to point a box straight and press a button, with an "
2302 "instrument which altogether removes from the practice of photography the "
2303 "necessity for exceptional facilities or, in fact, any special knowledge of "
2304 "the art. It can be employed without preliminary study, without a darkroom "
2305 "and without chemicals.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
2309 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2310 #: freeculture.xml:1801
2311 msgid "Jenkins, 177."
2315 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2316 #: freeculture.xml:1805
2317 msgid "Based on a chart in Jenkins, p. 178."
2320 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2321 #: freeculture.xml:1790
2323 "For $25, anyone could make pictures. The camera came preloaded with film, "
2324 "and when it had been used, the camera was returned to an Eastman factory, "
2325 "where the film was developed. Over time, of course, the cost of the camera "
2326 "and the ease with which it could be used both improved. Roll film thus "
2327 "became the basis for the explosive growth of popular photography. Eastman's "
2328 "camera first went on sale in 1888; one year later, Kodak was printing more "
2329 "than six thousand negatives a day. From 1888 through 1909, while industrial "
2330 "production was rising by 4.7 percent, photographic equipment and material "
2331 "sales increased by 11 percent.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
2332 "Eastman Kodak's sales during the same period experienced an average annual "
2333 "increase of over 17 percent.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
2337 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2338 #: freeculture.xml:1823
2342 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2343 #: freeculture.xml:1812
2345 "The real significance of Eastman's invention, however, was not economic. It "
2346 "was social. Professional photography gave individuals a glimpse of places "
2347 "they would never otherwise see. Amateur photography gave them the ability to "
2348 "record their own lives in a way they had never been able to do before. As "
2349 "author Brian Coe notes, \"For the first time the snapshot album provided the "
2350 "man on the street with a permanent record of his family and its "
2351 "activities. … For the first time in history there exists an authentic "
2352 "visual record of the appearance and activities of the common man made "
2353 "without [literary] interpretation or bias.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
2357 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2358 #: freeculture.xml:1827
2360 "In this way, the Kodak camera and film were technologies of expression. The "
2361 "pencil or paintbrush was also a technology of expression, of course. But it "
2362 "took years of training before they could be deployed by amateurs in any "
2363 "useful or effective way. With the Kodak, expression was possible much sooner "
2364 "and more simply. The barrier to expression was lowered. Snobs would sneer at "
2365 "its \"quality\"; professionals would discount it as irrelevant. But watch a "
2366 "child study how best to frame a picture and you get a sense of the "
2367 "experience of creativity that the Kodak enabled. Democratic tools gave "
2368 "ordinary people a way to express themselves more easily than any tools could "
2373 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2374 #: freeculture.xml:1849
2376 "For illustrative cases, see, for example, <citetitle>Pavesich</citetitle> "
2377 "v. <citetitle>N.E. Life Ins. Co</citetitle>., 50 S.E. 68 (Ga. 1905); "
2378 "<citetitle>Foster-Milburn Co</citetitle>. v. <citetitle>Chinn</citetitle>, "
2379 "123090 S.W. 364, 366 (Ky. 1909); <citetitle>Corliss</citetitle> "
2380 "v. <citetitle>Walker</citetitle>, 64 F. 280 (Mass. Dist. Ct. 1894)."
2383 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2384 #: freeculture.xml:1840
2386 "What was required for this technology to flourish? Obviously, Eastman's "
2387 "genius was an important part. But also important was the legal environment "
2388 "within which Eastman's invention grew. For early in the history of "
2389 "photography, there was a series of judicial decisions that could well have "
2390 "changed the course of photography substantially. Courts were asked whether "
2391 "the photographer, amateur or professional, required permission before he "
2392 "could capture and print whatever image he wanted. Their answer was "
2393 "no.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
2397 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2398 #: freeculture.xml:1857
2400 "The arguments in favor of requiring permission will sound surprisingly "
2401 "familiar. The photographer was \"taking\" something from the person or "
2402 "building whose photograph he shot—pirating something of value. Some "
2403 "even thought he was taking the target's soul. Just as Disney was not free to "
2404 "take the pencils that his animators used to draw Mickey, so, too, should "
2405 "these photographers not be free to take images that they thought valuable."
2408 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
2409 #: freeculture.xml:1879
2410 msgid "Warren, Samuel D."
2413 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2414 #: freeculture.xml:1876
2416 "Samuel D. Warren and Louis D. Brandeis, \"The Right to Privacy,\" "
2417 "<citetitle>Harvard Law Review</citetitle> 4 (1890): 193. <placeholder "
2418 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
2421 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2422 #: freeculture.xml:1869
2424 "On the other side was an argument that should be familiar, as well. Sure, "
2425 "there may be something of value being used. But citizens should have the "
2426 "right to capture at least those images that stand in public view. (Louis "
2427 "Brandeis, who would become a Supreme Court Justice, thought the rule should "
2428 "be different for images from private spaces.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
2429 "id=\"0\"/>) It may be that this means that the photographer gets something "
2430 "for nothing. Just as Disney could take inspiration from <citetitle>Steamboat "
2431 "Bill, Jr</citetitle>. or the Brothers Grimm, the photographer should be free "
2432 "to capture an image without compensating the source."
2436 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2437 #: freeculture.xml:1896
2439 "See Melville B. Nimmer, \"The Right of Publicity,\" <citetitle>Law and "
2440 "Contemporary Problems</citetitle> 19 (1954): 203; William L. Prosser, "
2441 "\"Privacy,\" <citetitle>California Law Review</citetitle> 48 (1960) "
2442 "398–407; <citetitle>White</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Samsung "
2443 "Electronics America, Inc</citetitle>., 971 F. 2d 1395 (9th Cir. 1992), "
2444 "cert. denied, 508 U.S. 951 (1993)."
2447 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2448 #: freeculture.xml:1886
2450 "Fortunately for Mr. Eastman, and for photography in general, these early "
2451 "decisions went in favor of the pirates. In general, no permission would be "
2452 "required before an image could be captured and shared with others. Instead, "
2453 "permission was presumed. Freedom was the default. (The law would eventually "
2454 "craft an exception for famous people: commercial photographers who snap "
2455 "pictures of famous people for commercial purposes have more restrictions "
2456 "than the rest of us. But in the ordinary case, the image can be captured "
2457 "without clearing the rights to do the capturing.<placeholder "
2458 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>)"
2461 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2462 #: freeculture.xml:1904
2464 "We can only speculate about how photography would have developed had the law "
2465 "gone the other way. If the presumption had been against the photographer, "
2466 "then the photographer would have had to demonstrate permission. Perhaps "
2467 "Eastman Kodak would have had to demonstrate permission, too, before it "
2468 "developed the film upon which images were captured. After all, if permission "
2469 "were not granted, then Eastman Kodak would be benefiting from the \"theft\" "
2470 "committed by the photographer. Just as Napster benefited from the copyright "
2471 "infringements committed by Napster users, Kodak would be benefiting from the "
2472 "\"image-right\" infringement of its photographers. We could imagine the law "
2473 "then requiring that some form of permission be demonstrated before a company "
2474 "developed pictures. We could imagine a system developing to demonstrate that "
2479 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2480 #: freeculture.xml:1921
2482 "But though we could imagine this system of permission, it would be very hard "
2483 "to see how photography could have flourished as it did if the requirement "
2484 "for permission had been built into the rules that govern it. Photography "
2485 "would have existed. It would have grown in importance over "
2486 "time. Professionals would have continued to use the technology as they "
2487 "did—since professionals could have more easily borne the burdens of "
2488 "the permission system. But the spread of photography to ordinary people "
2489 "would not have occurred. Nothing like that growth would have been "
2490 "realized. And certainly, nothing like that growth in a democratic technology "
2491 "of expression would have been realized. If you drive through San "
2492 "Francisco's Presidio, you might see two gaudy yellow school buses painted "
2493 "over with colorful and striking images, and the logo \"Just Think!\" in "
2494 "place of the name of a school. But there's little that's \"just\" cerebral "
2495 "in the projects that these busses enable. These buses are filled with "
2496 "technologies that teach kids to tinker with film. Not the film of "
2497 "Eastman. Not even the film of your VCR. Rather the \"film\" of digital "
2498 "cameras. Just Think! is a project that enables kids to make films, as a way "
2499 "to understand and critique the filmed culture that they find all around "
2500 "them. Each year, these busses travel to more than thirty schools and enable "
2501 "three hundred to five hundred children to learn something about media by "
2502 "doing something with media. By doing, they think. By tinkering, they learn."
2506 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2507 #: freeculture.xml:1954
2509 "H. Edward Goldberg, \"Essential Presentation Tools: Hardware and Software "
2510 "You Need to Create Digital Multimedia Presentations,\" cadalyst, February "
2511 "2002, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
2515 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2516 #: freeculture.xml:1948
2518 "These buses are not cheap, but the technology they carry is increasingly "
2519 "so. The cost of a high-quality digital video system has fallen "
2520 "dramatically. As one analyst puts it, \"Five years ago, a good real-time "
2521 "digital video editing system cost $25,000. Today you can get professional "
2522 "quality for $595.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> These buses are "
2523 "filled with technology that would have cost hundreds of thousands just ten "
2524 "years ago. And it is now feasible to imagine not just buses like this, but "
2525 "classrooms across the country where kids are learning more and more of "
2526 "something teachers call \"media literacy.\""
2529 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
2530 #: freeculture.xml:1971
2531 msgid "Yanofsky, Dave"
2534 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2535 #: freeculture.xml:1966
2537 "\"Media literacy,\" as Dave Yanofsky, the executive director of Just Think!, "
2538 "puts it, \"is the ability … to understand, analyze, and deconstruct "
2539 "media images. Its aim is to make [kids] literate about the way media works, "
2540 "the way it's constructed, the way it's delivered, and the way people access "
2541 "it.\" <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
2544 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2545 #: freeculture.xml:1974
2547 "This may seem like an odd way to think about \"literacy.\" For most people, "
2548 "literacy is about reading and writing. Faulkner and Hemingway and noticing "
2549 "split infinitives are the things that \"literate\" people know about."
2553 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2554 #: freeculture.xml:1984
2556 "Judith Van Evra, <citetitle>Television and Child Development</citetitle> "
2557 "(Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1990); \"Findings on Family "
2558 "and TV Study,\" <citetitle>Denver Post</citetitle>, 25 May 1997, B6."
2561 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2562 #: freeculture.xml:1980
2564 "Maybe. But in a world where children see on average 390 hours of television "
2565 "commercials per year, or between 20,000 and 45,000 commercials "
2566 "generally,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> it is increasingly "
2567 "important to understand the \"grammar\" of media. For just as there is a "
2568 "grammar for the written word, so, too, is there one for media. And just as "
2569 "kids learn how to write by writing lots of terrible prose, kids learn how to "
2570 "write media by constructing lots of (at least at first) terrible media."
2573 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2574 #: freeculture.xml:1995
2576 "A growing field of academics and activists sees this form of literacy as "
2577 "crucial to the next generation of culture. For though anyone who has written "
2578 "understands how difficult writing is—how difficult it is to sequence "
2579 "the story, to keep a reader's attention, to craft language to be "
2580 "understandable—few of us have any real sense of how difficult media "
2581 "is. Or more fundamentally, few of us have a sense of how media works, how it "
2582 "holds an audience or leads it through a story, how it triggers emotion or "
2586 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2587 #: freeculture.xml:2005
2589 "It took filmmaking a generation before it could do these things well. But "
2590 "even then, the knowledge was in the filming, not in writing about the "
2591 "film. The skill came from experiencing the making of a film, not from "
2592 "reading a book about it. One learns to write by writing and then reflecting "
2593 "upon what one has written. One learns to write with images by making them "
2594 "and then reflecting upon what one has created."
2597 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2598 #: freeculture.xml:2012
2599 msgid "Crichton, Michael"
2602 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2603 #: freeculture.xml:2026 freeculture.xml:2086 freeculture.xml:2093 freeculture.xml:2528
2604 msgid "Barish, Stephanie"
2607 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
2608 #: freeculture.xml:2027
2609 msgid "Daley, Elizabeth"
2612 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2613 #: freeculture.xml:2024
2615 "Interview with Elizabeth Daley and Stephanie Barish, 13 December 2002. "
2616 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
2621 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2622 #: freeculture.xml:2038
2624 "See Scott Steinberg, \"Crichton Gets Medieval on PCs,\" E!online, 4 November "
2625 "2000, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
2626 "#8</ulink>; \"Timeline,\" 22 November 2000, available at <ulink "
2627 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #9</ulink>."
2630 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2631 #: freeculture.xml:2014
2633 "This grammar has changed as media has changed. When it was just film, as "
2634 "Elizabeth Daley, executive director of the University of Southern "
2635 "California's Annenberg Center for Communication and dean of the USC School "
2636 "of Cinema-Television, explained to me, the grammar was about \"the placement "
2637 "of objects, color, … rhythm, pacing, and texture.\"<placeholder "
2638 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> But as computers open up an interactive space "
2639 "where a story is \"played\" as well as experienced, that grammar "
2640 "changes. The simple control of narrative is lost, and so other techniques "
2641 "are necessary. Author Michael Crichton had mastered the narrative of science "
2642 "fiction. But when he tried to design a computer game based on one of his "
2643 "works, it was a new craft he had to learn. How to lead people through a game "
2644 "without their feeling they have been led was not obvious, even to a wildly "
2645 "successful author.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
2648 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2649 #: freeculture.xml:2045
2650 msgid "computer games"
2653 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2654 #: freeculture.xml:2047
2656 "This skill is precisely the craft a filmmaker learns. As Daley describes, "
2657 "\"people are very surprised about how they are led through a film. [I]t is "
2658 "perfectly constructed to keep you from seeing it, so you have no idea. If a "
2659 "filmmaker succeeds you do not know how you were led.\" If you know you were "
2660 "led through a film, the film has failed."
2663 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2664 #: freeculture.xml:2054
2666 "Yet the push for an expanded literacy—one that goes beyond text to "
2667 "include audio and visual elements—is not about making better film "
2668 "directors. The aim is not to improve the profession of filmmaking at all. "
2669 "Instead, as Daley explained,"
2672 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
2673 #: freeculture.xml:2061
2675 "From my perspective, probably the most important digital divide is not "
2676 "access to a box. It's the ability to be empowered with the language that "
2677 "that box works in. Otherwise only a very few people can write with this "
2678 "language, and all the rest of us are reduced to being read-only."
2681 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2682 #: freeculture.xml:2069
2684 "\"Read-only.\" Passive recipients of culture produced elsewhere. Couch "
2685 "potatoes. Consumers. This is the world of media from the twentieth century."
2688 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2689 #: freeculture.xml:2085
2690 msgid "Interview with Daley and Barish. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
2694 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
2695 #: freeculture.xml:2090 freeculture.xml:3816 freeculture.xml:4860 freeculture.xml:8019
2699 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2700 #: freeculture.xml:2074
2702 "The twenty-first century could be different. This is the crucial point: It "
2703 "could be both read and write. Or at least reading and better understanding "
2704 "the craft of writing. Or best, reading and understanding the tools that "
2705 "enable the writing to lead or mislead. The aim of any literacy, and this "
2706 "literacy in particular, is to \"empower people to choose the appropriate "
2707 "language for what they need to create or express.\"<placeholder "
2708 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> It is to enable students \"to communicate in "
2709 "the language of the twenty-first century.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
2713 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2714 #: freeculture.xml:2095
2716 "As with any language, this language comes more easily to some than to "
2717 "others. It doesn't necessarily come more easily to those who excel in "
2718 "written language. Daley and Stephanie Barish, director of the Institute for "
2719 "Multimedia Literacy at the Annenberg Center, describe one particularly "
2720 "poignant example of a project they ran in a high school. The high school "
2721 "was a very poor inner-city Los Angeles school. In all the traditional "
2722 "measures of success, this school was a failure. But Daley and Barish ran a "
2723 "program that gave kids an opportunity to use film to express meaning about "
2724 "something the students know something about—gun violence."
2727 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2728 #: freeculture.xml:2107
2730 "The class was held on Friday afternoons, and it created a relatively new "
2731 "problem for the school. While the challenge in most classes was getting the "
2732 "kids to come, the challenge in this class was keeping them away. The \"kids "
2733 "were showing up at 6 A.M. and leaving at 5 at night,\" said Barish. They "
2734 "were working harder than in any other class to do what education should be "
2735 "about—learning how to express themselves."
2738 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2739 #: freeculture.xml:2115
2741 "Using whatever \"free web stuff they could find,\" and relatively simple "
2742 "tools to enable the kids to mix \"image, sound, and text,\" Barish said this "
2743 "class produced a series of projects that showed something about gun violence "
2744 "that few would otherwise understand. This was an issue close to the lives of "
2745 "these students. The project \"gave them a tool and empowered them to be able "
2746 "to both understand it and talk about it,\" Barish explained. That tool "
2747 "succeeded in creating expression—far more successfully and powerfully "
2748 "than could have been created using only text. \"If you had said to these "
2749 "students, `you have to do it in text,' they would've just thrown their hands "
2750 "up and gone and done something else,\" Barish described, in part, no doubt, "
2751 "because expressing themselves in text is not something these students can do "
2752 "well. Yet neither is text a form in which <emphasis>these</emphasis> ideas "
2753 "can be expressed well. The power of this message depended upon its "
2754 "connection to this form of expression."
2758 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2759 #: freeculture.xml:2134
2761 "\"But isn't education about teaching kids to write?\" I asked. In part, of "
2762 "course, it is. But why are we teaching kids to write? Education, Daley "
2763 "explained, is about giving students a way of \"constructing meaning.\" To "
2764 "say that that means just writing is like saying teaching writing is only "
2765 "about teaching kids how to spell. Text is one part—and increasingly, "
2766 "not the most powerful part—of constructing meaning. As Daley explained "
2767 "in the most moving part of our interview,"
2770 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
2771 #: freeculture.xml:2145
2773 "What you want is to give these students ways of constructing meaning. If all "
2774 "you give them is text, they're not going to do it. Because they can't. You "
2775 "know, you've got Johnny who can look at a video, he can play a video game, "
2776 "he can do graffiti all over your walls, he can take your car apart, and he "
2777 "can do all sorts of other things. He just can't read your text. So Johnny "
2778 "comes to school and you say, \"Johnny, you're illiterate. Nothing you can do "
2779 "matters.\" Well, Johnny then has two choices: He can dismiss you or he [can] "
2780 "dismiss himself. If his ego is healthy at all, he's going to dismiss "
2781 "you. [But i]nstead, if you say, \"Well, with all these things that you can "
2782 "do, let's talk about this issue. Play for me music that you think reflects "
2783 "that, or show me images that you think reflect that, or draw for me "
2784 "something that reflects that.\" Not by giving a kid a video camera and "
2785 "… saying, \"Let's go have fun with the video camera and make a little "
2786 "movie.\" But instead, really help you take these elements that you "
2787 "understand, that are your language, and construct meaning about the "
2791 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
2792 #: freeculture.xml:2164
2794 "That empowers enormously. And then what happens, of course, is eventually, "
2795 "as it has happened in all these classes, they bump up against the fact, \"I "
2796 "need to explain this and I really need to write something.\" And as one of "
2797 "the teachers told Stephanie, they would rewrite a paragraph 5, 6, 7, 8 "
2798 "times, till they got it right."
2802 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
2803 #: freeculture.xml:2171
2805 "Because they needed to. There was a reason for doing it. They needed to say "
2806 "something, as opposed to just jumping through your hoops. They actually "
2807 "needed to use a language that they didn't speak very well. But they had come "
2808 "to understand that they had a lot of power with this language.\""
2811 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2812 #: freeculture.xml:2180
2814 "When two planes crashed into the World Trade Center, another into the "
2815 "Pentagon, and a fourth into a Pennsylvania field, all media around the world "
2816 "shifted to this news. Every moment of just about every day for that week, "
2817 "and for weeks after, television in particular, and media generally, retold "
2818 "the story of the events we had just witnessed. The telling was a retelling, "
2819 "because we had seen the events that were described. The genius of this awful "
2820 "act of terrorism was that the delayed second attack was perfectly timed to "
2821 "assure that the whole world would be watching."
2824 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2825 #: freeculture.xml:2191
2827 "These retellings had an increasingly familiar feel. There was music scored "
2828 "for the intermissions, and fancy graphics that flashed across the "
2829 "screen. There was a formula to interviews. There was \"balance,\" and "
2830 "seriousness. This was news choreographed in the way we have increasingly "
2831 "come to expect it, \"news as entertainment,\" even if the entertainment is "
2835 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
2836 #: freeculture.xml:2198 freeculture.xml:7958 freeculture.xml:8194
2840 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2841 #: freeculture.xml:2199
2845 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2846 #: freeculture.xml:2201
2848 "But in addition to this produced news about the \"tragedy of September 11,\" "
2849 "those of us tied to the Internet came to see a very different production as "
2850 "well. The Internet was filled with accounts of the same events. Yet these "
2851 "Internet accounts had a very different flavor. Some people constructed photo "
2852 "pages that captured images from around the world and presented them as slide "
2853 "shows with text. Some offered open letters. There were sound "
2854 "recordings. There was anger and frustration. There were attempts to provide "
2855 "context. There was, in short, an extraordinary worldwide barn raising, in "
2856 "the sense Mike Godwin uses the term in his book <citetitle>Cyber "
2857 "Rights</citetitle>, around a news event that had captured the attention of "
2858 "the world. There was ABC and CBS, but there was also the Internet."
2862 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2863 #: freeculture.xml:2215
2865 "I don't mean simply to praise the Internet—though I do think the "
2866 "people who supported this form of speech should be praised. I mean instead "
2867 "to point to a significance in this form of speech. For like a Kodak, the "
2868 "Internet enables people to capture images. And like in a movie by a student "
2869 "on the \"Just Think!\" bus, the visual images could be mixed with sound or "
2873 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2874 #: freeculture.xml:2225
2876 "But unlike any technology for simply capturing images, the Internet allows "
2877 "these creations to be shared with an extraordinary number of people, "
2878 "practically instantaneously. This is something new in our "
2879 "tradition—not just that culture can be captured mechanically, and "
2880 "obviously not just that events are commented upon critically, but that this "
2881 "mix of captured images, sound, and commentary can be widely spread "
2882 "practically instantaneously."
2885 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2886 #: freeculture.xml:2234
2888 "September 11 was not an aberration. It was a beginning. Around the same "
2889 "time, a form of communication that has grown dramatically was just beginning "
2890 "to come into public consciousness: the Web-log, or blog. The blog is a kind "
2891 "of public diary, and within some cultures, such as in Japan, it functions "
2892 "very much like a diary. In those cultures, it records private facts in a "
2893 "public way—it's a kind of electronic <citetitle>Jerry "
2894 "Springer</citetitle>, available anywhere in the world."
2897 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2898 #: freeculture.xml:2243
2900 "But in the United States, blogs have taken on a very different character. "
2901 "There are some who use the space simply to talk about their private "
2902 "life. But there are many who use the space to engage in public "
2903 "discourse. Discussing matters of public import, criticizing others who are "
2904 "mistaken in their views, criticizing politicians about the decisions they "
2905 "make, offering solutions to problems we all see: blogs create the sense of a "
2906 "virtual public meeting, but one in which we don't all hope to be there at "
2907 "the same time and in which conversations are not necessarily linked. The "
2908 "best of the blog entries are relatively short; they point directly to words "
2909 "used by others, criticizing with or adding to them. They are arguably the "
2910 "most important form of unchoreographed public discourse that we have."
2914 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2915 #: freeculture.xml:2257
2917 "That's a strong statement. Yet it says as much about our democracy as it "
2918 "does about blogs. This is the part of America that is most difficult for "
2919 "those of us who love America to accept: Our democracy has atrophied. Of "
2920 "course we have elections, and most of the time the courts allow those "
2921 "elections to count. A relatively small number of people vote in those "
2922 "elections. The cycle of these elections has become totally professionalized "
2923 "and routinized. Most of us think this is democracy."
2927 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2928 #: freeculture.xml:2283
2930 "See, for example, Alexis de Tocqueville, <citetitle>Democracy in "
2931 "America</citetitle>, bk. 1, trans. Henry Reeve (New York: Bantam Books, "
2935 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2936 #: freeculture.xml:2268
2938 "But democracy has never just been about elections. Democracy means rule by "
2939 "the people, but rule means something more than mere elections. In our "
2940 "tradition, it also means control through reasoned discourse. This was the "
2941 "idea that captured the imagination of Alexis de Tocqueville, the "
2942 "nineteenth-century French lawyer who wrote the most important account of "
2943 "early \"Democracy in America.\" It wasn't popular elections that fascinated "
2944 "him—it was the jury, an institution that gave ordinary people the "
2945 "right to choose life or death for other citizens. And most fascinating for "
2946 "him was that the jury didn't just vote about the outcome they would "
2947 "impose. They deliberated. Members argued about the \"right\" result; they "
2948 "tried to persuade each other of the \"right\" result, and in criminal cases "
2949 "at least, they had to agree upon a unanimous result for the process to come "
2950 "to an end.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
2954 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2955 #: freeculture.xml:2292
2957 "Bruce Ackerman and James Fishkin, \"Deliberation Day,\" <citetitle>Journal "
2958 "of Political Philosophy</citetitle> 10 (2) (2002): 129."
2961 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2962 #: freeculture.xml:2288
2964 "Yet even this institution flags in American life today. And in its place, "
2965 "there is no systematic effort to enable citizen deliberation. Some are "
2966 "pushing to create just such an institution.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
2967 "id=\"0\"/> And in some towns in New England, something close to deliberation "
2968 "remains. But for most of us for most of the time, there is no time or place "
2969 "for \"democratic deliberation\" to occur."
2973 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2974 #: freeculture.xml:2307
2976 "Cass Sunstein, <citetitle>Republic.com</citetitle> (Princeton: Princeton "
2977 "University Press, 2001), 65–80, 175, 182, 183, 192."
2980 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2981 #: freeculture.xml:2300
2983 "More bizarrely, there is generally not even permission for it to occur. We, "
2984 "the most powerful democracy in the world, have developed a strong norm "
2985 "against talking about politics. It's fine to talk about politics with people "
2986 "you agree with. But it is rude to argue about politics with people you "
2987 "disagree with. Political discourse becomes isolated, and isolated discourse "
2988 "becomes more extreme.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> We say what "
2989 "our friends want to hear, and hear very little beyond what our friends say."
2993 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2994 #: freeculture.xml:2313
2996 "Enter the blog. The blog's very architecture solves one part of this "
2997 "problem. People post when they want to post, and people read when they want "
2998 "to read. The most difficult time is synchronous time. Technologies that "
2999 "enable asynchronous communication, such as e-mail, increase the opportunity "
3000 "for communication. Blogs allow for public discourse without the public ever "
3001 "needing to gather in a single public place."
3004 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3005 #: freeculture.xml:2324
3007 "But beyond architecture, blogs also have solved the problem of "
3008 "norms. There's no norm (yet) in blog space not to talk about politics. "
3009 "Indeed, the space is filled with political speech, on both the right and the "
3010 "left. Some of the most popular sites are conservative or libertarian, but "
3011 "there are many of all political stripes. And even blogs that are not "
3012 "political cover political issues when the occasion merits."
3015 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
3016 #: freeculture.xml:2336
3017 msgid "Dean, Howard"
3020 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3021 #: freeculture.xml:2332
3023 "The significance of these blogs is tiny now, though not so tiny. The name "
3024 "Howard Dean may well have faded from the 2004 presidential race but for "
3025 "blogs. Yet even if the number of readers is small, the reading is having an "
3026 "effect. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
3030 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3031 #: freeculture.xml:2350
3033 "Noah Shachtman, \"With Incessant Postings, a Pundit Stirs the Pot,\" New "
3034 "York Times, 16 January 2003, G5."
3037 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
3038 #: freeculture.xml:2353
3042 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3043 #: freeculture.xml:2339
3045 "One direct effect is on stories that had a different life cycle in the "
3046 "mainstream media. The Trent Lott affair is an example. When Lott "
3047 "\"misspoke\" at a party for Senator Strom Thurmond, essentially praising "
3048 "Thurmond's segregationist policies, he calculated correctly that this story "
3049 "would disappear from the mainstream press within forty-eight hours. It "
3050 "did. But he didn't calculate its life cycle in blog space. The bloggers kept "
3051 "researching the story. Over time, more and more instances of the same "
3052 "\"misspeaking\" emerged. Finally, the story broke back into the mainstream "
3053 "press. In the end, Lott was forced to resign as senate majority "
3054 "leader.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
3055 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
3058 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3059 #: freeculture.xml:2356
3061 "This different cycle is possible because the same commercial pressures don't "
3062 "exist with blogs as with other ventures. Television and newspapers are "
3063 "commercial entities. They must work to keep attention. If they lose "
3064 "readers, they lose revenue. Like sharks, they must move on."
3067 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3068 #: freeculture.xml:2363
3070 "But bloggers don't have a similar constraint. They can obsess, they can "
3071 "focus, they can get serious. If a particular blogger writes a particularly "
3072 "interesting story, more and more people link to that story. And as the "
3073 "number of links to a particular story increases, it rises in the ranks of "
3074 "stories. People read what is popular; what is popular has been selected by a "
3075 "very democratic process of peer-generated rankings."
3078 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3079 #: freeculture.xml:2372
3084 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3085 #: freeculture.xml:2375
3087 "There's a second way, as well, in which blogs have a different cycle from "
3088 "the mainstream press. As Dave Winer, one of the fathers of this movement and "
3089 "a software author for many decades, told me, another difference is the "
3090 "absence of a financial \"conflict of interest.\" \"I think you have to take "
3091 "the conflict of interest\" out of journalism, Winer told me. \"An amateur "
3092 "journalist simply doesn't have a conflict of interest, or the conflict of "
3093 "interest is so easily disclosed that you know you can sort of get it out of "
3097 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
3098 #: freeculture.xml:2385 freeculture.xml:2438
3103 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3104 #: freeculture.xml:2393
3105 msgid "Telephone interview with David Winer, 16 April 2003."
3108 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3109 #: freeculture.xml:2387
3111 "These conflicts become more important as media becomes more concentrated "
3112 "(more on this below). A concentrated media can hide more from the public "
3113 "than an unconcentrated media can—as CNN admitted it did after the Iraq "
3114 "war because it was afraid of the consequences to its own "
3115 "employees.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> It also needs to sustain "
3116 "a more coherent account. (In the middle of the Iraq war, I read a post on "
3117 "the Internet from someone who was at that time listening to a satellite "
3118 "uplink with a reporter in Iraq. The New York headquarters was telling the "
3119 "reporter over and over that her account of the war was too bleak: She needed "
3120 "to offer a more optimistic story. When she told New York that wasn't "
3121 "warranted, they told her <emphasis>that</emphasis> they were writing \"the "
3126 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3127 #: freeculture.xml:2411
3129 "John Schwartz, \"Loss of the Shuttle: The Internet; A Wealth of Information "
3130 "Online,\" <citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 2 February 2003, A28; Staci "
3131 "D. Kramer, \"Shuttle Disaster Coverage Mixed, but Strong Overall,\" Online "
3132 "Journalism Review, 2 February 2003, available at <ulink "
3133 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #10</ulink>."
3136 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3137 #: freeculture.xml:2403
3139 "Blog space gives amateurs a way to enter the debate—\"amateur\" not in "
3140 "the sense of inexperienced, but in the sense of an Olympic athlete, meaning "
3141 "not paid by anyone to give their reports. It allows for a much broader range "
3142 "of input into a story, as reporting on the Columbia disaster revealed, when "
3143 "hundreds from across the southwest United States turned to the Internet to "
3144 "retell what they had seen.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> And it "
3145 "drives readers to read across the range of accounts and \"triangulate,\" as "
3146 "Winer puts it, the truth. Blogs, Winer says, are \"communicating directly "
3147 "with our constituency, and the middle man is out of it\"—with all the "
3148 "benefits, and costs, that might entail."
3151 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3152 #: freeculture.xml:2430
3154 "See Michael Falcone, \"Does an Editor's Pencil Ruin a Web Log?\" "
3155 "<citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 29 September 2003, C4. (\"Not all "
3156 "news organizations have been as accepting of employees who blog. Kevin "
3157 "Sites, a CNN correspondent in Iraq who started a blog about his reporting of "
3158 "the war on March 9, stopped posting 12 days later at his bosses' "
3159 "request. Last year Steve Olafson, a <citetitle>Houston Chronicle</citetitle> "
3160 "reporter, was fired for keeping a personal Web log, published under a "
3161 "pseudonym, that dealt with some of the issues and people he was covering.\") "
3162 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
3166 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3167 #: freeculture.xml:2423
3169 "Winer is optimistic about the future of journalism infected with "
3170 "blogs. \"It's going to become an essential skill,\" Winer predicts, for "
3171 "public figures and increasingly for private figures as well. It's not clear "
3172 "that \"journalism\" is happy about this—some journalists have been "
3173 "told to curtail their blogging.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> But "
3174 "it is clear that we are still in transition. \"A lot of what we are doing "
3175 "now is warm-up exercises,\" Winer told me. There is a lot that must mature "
3176 "before this space has its mature effect. And as the inclusion of content in "
3177 "this space is the least infringing use of the Internet (meaning infringing "
3178 "on copyright), Winer said, \"we will be the last thing that gets shut "
3182 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3183 #: freeculture.xml:2450
3185 "This speech affects democracy. Winer thinks that happens because \"you don't "
3186 "have to work for somebody who controls, [for] a gatekeeper.\" That is "
3187 "true. But it affects democracy in another way as well. As more and more "
3188 "citizens express what they think, and defend it in writing, that will change "
3189 "the way people understand public issues. It is easy to be wrong and "
3190 "misguided in your head. It is harder when the product of your mind can be "
3191 "criticized by others. Of course, it is a rare human who admits that he has "
3192 "been persuaded that he is wrong. But it is even rarer for a human to ignore "
3193 "when he has been proven wrong. The writing of ideas, arguments, and "
3194 "criticism improves democracy. Today there are probably a couple of million "
3195 "blogs where such writing happens. When there are ten million, there will be "
3196 "something extraordinary to report."
3199 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3200 #: freeculture.xml:2466
3201 msgid "Brown, John Seely"
3204 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3205 #: freeculture.xml:2469
3207 "John Seely Brown is the chief scientist of the Xerox Corporation. His work, "
3208 "as his Web site describes it, is \"human learning and … the creation "
3209 "of knowledge ecologies for creating … innovation.\""
3212 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3213 #: freeculture.xml:2474
3215 "Brown thus looks at these technologies of digital creativity a bit "
3216 "differently from the perspectives I've sketched so far. I'm sure he would be "
3217 "excited about any technology that might improve democracy. But his real "
3218 "excitement comes from how these technologies affect learning."
3222 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3223 #: freeculture.xml:2481
3225 "As Brown believes, we learn by tinkering. When \"a lot of us grew up,\" he "
3226 "explains, that tinkering was done \"on motorcycle engines, lawnmower "
3227 "engines, automobiles, radios, and so on.\" But digital technologies enable a "
3228 "different kind of tinkering—with abstract ideas though in concrete "
3229 "form. The kids at Just Think! not only think about how a commercial portrays "
3230 "a politician; using digital technology, they can take the commercial apart "
3231 "and manipulate it, tinker with it to see how it does what it does. Digital "
3232 "technologies launch a kind of bricolage, or \"free collage,\" as Brown calls "
3233 "it. Many get to add to or transform the tinkering of many others."
3236 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3237 #: freeculture.xml:2494
3239 "The best large-scale example of this kind of tinkering so far is free "
3240 "software or open-source software (FS/OSS). FS/OSS is software whose source "
3241 "code is shared. Anyone can download the technology that makes a FS/OSS "
3242 "program run. And anyone eager to learn how a particular bit of FS/OSS "
3243 "technology works can tinker with the code."
3246 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3247 #: freeculture.xml:2501
3249 "This opportunity creates a \"completely new kind of learning platform,\" as "
3250 "Brown describes. \"As soon as you start doing that, you … unleash a "
3251 "free collage on the community, so that other people can start looking at "
3252 "your code, tinkering with it, trying it out, seeing if they can improve "
3253 "it.\" Each effort is a kind of apprenticeship. \"Open source becomes a major "
3254 "apprenticeship platform.\""
3257 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3258 #: freeculture.xml:2509
3260 "In this process, \"the concrete things you tinker with are abstract. They "
3261 "are code.\" Kids are \"shifting to the ability to tinker in the abstract, "
3262 "and this tinkering is no longer an isolated activity that you're doing in "
3263 "your garage. You are tinkering with a community platform. … You are "
3264 "tinkering with other people's stuff. The more you tinker the more you "
3265 "improve.\" The more you improve, the more you learn."
3268 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3269 #: freeculture.xml:2518
3271 "This same thing happens with content, too. And it happens in the same "
3272 "collaborative way when that content is part of the Web. As Brown puts it, "
3273 "\"the Web [is] the first medium that truly honors multiple forms of "
3274 "intelligence.\" Earlier technologies, such as the typewriter or word "
3275 "processors, helped amplify text. But the Web amplifies much more than "
3276 "text. \"The Web … says if you are musical, if you are artistic, if "
3277 "you are visual, if you are interested in film … [then] there is a lot "
3278 "you can start to do on this medium. [It] can now amplify and honor these "
3279 "multiple forms of intelligence.\""
3283 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3284 #: freeculture.xml:2530
3286 "Brown is talking about what Elizabeth Daley, Stephanie Barish, and Just "
3287 "Think! teach: that this tinkering with culture teaches as well as "
3288 "creates. It develops talents differently, and it builds a different kind of "
3292 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3293 #: freeculture.xml:2538
3295 "Yet the freedom to tinker with these objects is not guaranteed. Indeed, as "
3296 "we'll see through the course of this book, that freedom is increasingly "
3297 "highly contested. While there's no doubt that your father had the right to "
3298 "tinker with the car engine, there's great doubt that your child will have "
3299 "the right to tinker with the images she finds all around. The law and, "
3300 "increasingly, technology interfere with a freedom that technology, and "
3301 "curiosity, would otherwise ensure."
3305 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3306 #: freeculture.xml:2554
3308 "See, for example, Edward Felten and Andrew Appel, \"Technological Access "
3309 "Control Interferes with Noninfringing Scholarship,\" "
3310 "<citetitle>Communications of the Association for Computer "
3311 "Machinery</citetitle> 43 (2000): 9."
3314 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3315 #: freeculture.xml:2547
3317 "These restrictions have become the focus of researchers and scholars. "
3318 "Professor Ed Felten of Princeton (whom we'll see more of in chapter <xref "
3319 "xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"property-i\"/>) has developed a "
3320 "powerful argument in favor of the \"right to tinker\" as it applies to "
3321 "computer science and to knowledge in general.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
3322 "id=\"0\"/> But Brown's concern is earlier, or younger, or more "
3323 "fundamental. It is about the learning that kids can do, or can't do, because "
3327 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3328 #: freeculture.xml:2562
3330 "\"This is where education in the twenty-first century is going,\" Brown "
3331 "explains. We need to \"understand how kids who grow up digital think and "
3335 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3336 #: freeculture.xml:2567
3338 "\"Yet,\" as Brown continued, and as the balance of this book will evince, "
3339 "\"we are building a legal system that completely suppresses the natural "
3340 "tendencies of today's digital kids. … We're building an architecture "
3341 "that unleashes 60 percent of the brain [and] a legal system that closes down "
3342 "that part of the brain.\""
3345 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3346 #: freeculture.xml:2575
3348 "We're building a technology that takes the magic of Kodak, mixes moving "
3349 "images and sound, and adds a space for commentary and an opportunity to "
3350 "spread that creativity everywhere. But we're building the law to close down "
3354 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3355 #: freeculture.xml:2581
3357 "\"No way to run a culture,\" as Brewster Kahle, whom we'll meet in chapter "
3358 "<xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"collectors\"/>, quipped to "
3359 "me in a rare moment of despondence."
3362 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
3363 #: freeculture.xml:2588
3364 msgid "CHAPTER THREE: Catalogs"
3367 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3368 #: freeculture.xml:2590
3370 "In the fall of 2002, Jesse Jordan of Oceanside, New York, enrolled as a "
3371 "freshman at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in Troy, New York. His major "
3372 "at RPI was information technology. Though he is not a programmer, in October "
3373 "Jesse decided to begin to tinker with search engine technology that was "
3374 "available on the RPI network."
3377 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3378 #: freeculture.xml:2597
3380 "RPI is one of America's foremost technological research institutions. It "
3381 "offers degrees in fields ranging from architecture and engineering to "
3382 "information sciences. More than 65 percent of its five thousand "
3383 "undergraduates finished in the top 10 percent of their high school "
3384 "class. The school is thus a perfect mix of talent and experience to imagine "
3385 "and then build, a generation for the network age."
3388 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3389 #: freeculture.xml:2605
3391 "RPI's computer network links students, faculty, and administration to one "
3392 "another. It also links RPI to the Internet. Not everything available on the "
3393 "RPI network is available on the Internet. But the network is designed to "
3394 "enable students to get access to the Internet, as well as more intimate "
3395 "access to other members of the RPI community."
3399 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3400 #: freeculture.xml:2612
3402 "Search engines are a measure of a network's intimacy. Google brought the "
3403 "Internet much closer to all of us by fantastically improving the quality of "
3404 "search on the network. Specialty search engines can do this even better. The "
3405 "idea of \"intranet\" search engines, search engines that search within the "
3406 "network of a particular institution, is to provide users of that institution "
3407 "with better access to material from that institution. Businesses do this "
3408 "all the time, enabling employees to have access to material that people "
3409 "outside the business can't get. Universities do it as well."
3412 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3413 #: freeculture.xml:2624
3415 "These engines are enabled by the network technology itself. Microsoft, for "
3416 "example, has a network file system that makes it very easy for search "
3417 "engines tuned to that network to query the system for information about the "
3418 "publicly (within that network) available content. Jesse's search engine was "
3419 "built to take advantage of this technology. It used Microsoft's network file "
3420 "system to build an index of all the files available within the RPI network."
3423 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3424 #: freeculture.xml:2633
3426 "Jesse's wasn't the first search engine built for the RPI network. Indeed, "
3427 "his engine was a simple modification of engines that others had built. His "
3428 "single most important improvement over those engines was to fix a bug within "
3429 "the Microsoft file-sharing system that could cause a user's computer to "
3430 "crash. With the engines that existed before, if you tried to access a file "
3431 "through a Windows browser that was on a computer that was off-line, your "
3432 "computer could crash. Jesse modified the system a bit to fix that problem, "
3433 "by adding a button that a user could click to see if the machine holding the "
3434 "file was still on-line."
3437 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3438 #: freeculture.xml:2645
3440 "Jesse's engine went on-line in late October. Over the following six months, "
3441 "he continued to tweak it to improve its functionality. By March, the system "
3442 "was functioning quite well. Jesse had more than one million files in his "
3443 "directory, including every type of content that might be on users' "
3448 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3449 #: freeculture.xml:2652
3451 "Thus the index his search engine produced included pictures, which students "
3452 "could use to put on their own Web sites; copies of notes or research; copies "
3453 "of information pamphlets; movie clips that students might have created; "
3454 "university brochures—basically anything that users of the RPI network "
3455 "made available in a public folder of their computer."
3458 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3459 #: freeculture.xml:2661
3461 "But the index also included music files. In fact, one quarter of the files "
3462 "that Jesse's search engine listed were music files. But that means, of "
3463 "course, that three quarters were not, and—so that this point is "
3464 "absolutely clear—Jesse did nothing to induce people to put music files "
3465 "in their public folders. He did nothing to target the search engine to these "
3466 "files. He was a kid tinkering with a Google-like technology at a university "
3467 "where he was studying information science, and hence, tinkering was the "
3468 "aim. Unlike Google, or Microsoft, for that matter, he made no money from "
3469 "this tinkering; he was not connected to any business that would make any "
3470 "money from this experiment. He was a kid tinkering with technology in an "
3471 "environment where tinkering with technology was precisely what he was "
3475 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3476 #: freeculture.xml:2676
3478 "On April 3, 2003, Jesse was contacted by the dean of students at RPI. The "
3479 "dean informed Jesse that the Recording Industry Association of America, the "
3480 "RIAA, would be filing a lawsuit against him and three other students whom he "
3481 "didn't even know, two of them at other universities. A few hours later, "
3482 "Jesse was served with papers from the suit. As he read these papers and "
3483 "watched the news reports about them, he was increasingly astonished."
3486 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3487 #: freeculture.xml:2685
3489 "\"It was absurd,\" he told me. \"I don't think I did anything "
3490 "wrong. … I don't think there's anything wrong with the search engine "
3491 "that I ran or … what I had done to it. I mean, I hadn't modified it "
3492 "in any way that promoted or enhanced the work of pirates. I just modified "
3493 "the search engine in a way that would make it easier to use\"—again, a "
3494 "<emphasis>search engine</emphasis>, which Jesse had not himself built, using "
3495 "the Windows filesharing system, which Jesse had not himself built, to enable "
3496 "members of the RPI community to get access to content, which Jesse had not "
3497 "himself created or posted, and the vast majority of which had nothing to do "
3502 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3503 #: freeculture.xml:2698
3505 "But the RIAA branded Jesse a pirate. They claimed he operated a network and "
3506 "had therefore \"willfully\" violated copyright laws. They demanded that he "
3507 "pay them the damages for his wrong. For cases of \"willful infringement,\" "
3508 "the Copyright Act specifies something lawyers call \"statutory damages.\" "
3509 "These damages permit a copyright owner to claim $150,000 per "
3510 "infringement. As the RIAA alleged more than one hundred specific copyright "
3511 "infringements, they therefore demanded that Jesse pay them at least "
3516 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3517 #: freeculture.xml:2721
3519 "Tim Goral, \"Recording Industry Goes After Campus P-2-P Networks: Suit "
3520 "Alleges $97.8 Billion in Damages,\" <citetitle>Professional Media Group "
3521 "LCC</citetitle> 6 (2003): 5, available at 2003 WL 55179443."
3524 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3525 #: freeculture.xml:2709
3527 "Similar lawsuits were brought against three other students: one other "
3528 "student at RPI, one at Michigan Technical University, and one at "
3529 "Princeton. Their situations were similar to Jesse's. Though each case was "
3530 "different in detail, the bottom line in each was exactly the same: huge "
3531 "demands for \"damages\" that the RIAA claimed it was entitled to. If you "
3532 "added up the claims, these four lawsuits were asking courts in the United "
3533 "States to award the plaintiffs close to $100 "
3534 "<emphasis>billion</emphasis>—six times the <emphasis>total</emphasis> "
3535 "profit of the film industry in 2001.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
3539 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3540 #: freeculture.xml:2727
3542 "Jesse called his parents. They were supportive but a bit frightened. An "
3543 "uncle was a lawyer. He began negotiations with the RIAA. They demanded to "
3544 "know how much money Jesse had. Jesse had saved $12,000 from summer jobs and "
3545 "other employment. They demanded $12,000 to dismiss the case."
3548 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3549 #: freeculture.xml:2734
3551 "The RIAA wanted Jesse to admit to doing something wrong. He refused. They "
3552 "wanted him to agree to an injunction that would essentially make it "
3553 "impossible for him to work in many fields of technology for the rest of his "
3554 "life. He refused. They made him understand that this process of being sued "
3555 "was not going to be pleasant. (As Jesse's father recounted to me, the chief "
3556 "lawyer on the case, Matt Oppenheimer, told Jesse, \"You don't want to pay "
3557 "another visit to a dentist like me.\") And throughout, the RIAA insisted it "
3558 "would not settle the case until it took every penny Jesse had saved."
3562 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3563 #: freeculture.xml:2745
3565 "Jesse's family was outraged at these claims. They wanted to fight. But "
3566 "Jesse's uncle worked to educate the family about the nature of the American "
3567 "legal system. Jesse could fight the RIAA. He might even win. But the cost of "
3568 "fighting a lawsuit like this, Jesse was told, would be at least $250,000. If "
3569 "he won, he would not recover that money. If he won, he would have a piece of "
3570 "paper saying he had won, and a piece of paper saying he and his family were "
3574 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3575 #: freeculture.xml:2755
3577 "So Jesse faced a mafia-like choice: $250,000 and a chance at winning, or "
3578 "$12,000 and a settlement."
3582 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3583 #: freeculture.xml:2767
3585 "Occupational Employment Survey, U.S. Dept. of Labor (2001) "
3586 "(27–2042—Musicians and Singers). See also National Endowment for "
3587 "the Arts, <citetitle>More Than One in a Blue Moon</citetitle> (2000)."
3591 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3592 #: freeculture.xml:2775
3594 "Douglas Lichtman makes a related point in \"KaZaA and Punishment,\" "
3595 "<citetitle>Wall Street Journal</citetitle>, 10 September 2003, A24."
3598 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3599 #: freeculture.xml:2759
3601 "The recording industry insists this is a matter of law and morality. Let's "
3602 "put the law aside for a moment and think about the morality. Where is the "
3603 "morality in a lawsuit like this? What is the virtue in scapegoatism? The "
3604 "RIAA is an extraordinarily powerful lobby. The president of the RIAA is "
3605 "reported to make more than $1 million a year. Artists, on the other hand, "
3606 "are not well paid. The average recording artist makes $45,900.<placeholder "
3607 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> There are plenty of ways for the RIAA to affect "
3608 "and direct policy. So where is the morality in taking money from a student "
3609 "for running a search engine?<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
3612 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3613 #: freeculture.xml:2780
3615 "On June 23, Jesse wired his savings to the lawyer working for the RIAA. The "
3616 "case against him was then dismissed. And with this, this kid who had "
3617 "tinkered a computer into a $15 million lawsuit became an activist:"
3620 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
3621 #: freeculture.xml:2787
3623 "I was definitely not an activist [before]. I never really meant to be an "
3624 "activist. … [But] I've been pushed into this. In no way did I ever "
3625 "foresee anything like this, but I think it's just completely absurd what the "
3629 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3630 #: freeculture.xml:2794
3632 "Jesse's parents betray a certain pride in their reluctant activist. As his "
3633 "father told me, Jesse \"considers himself very conservative, and so do "
3634 "I. … He's not a tree hugger. … I think it's bizarre that they "
3635 "would pick on him. But he wants to let people know that they're sending the "
3636 "wrong message. And he wants to correct the record.\""
3639 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
3640 #: freeculture.xml:2803
3641 msgid "CHAPTER FOUR: \"Pirates\""
3644 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3645 #: freeculture.xml:2805
3647 "If \"piracy\" means using the creative property of others without their "
3648 "permission—if \"if value, then right\" is true—then the history "
3649 "of the content industry is a history of piracy. Every important sector of "
3650 "\"big media\" today—film, records, radio, and cable TV—was born "
3651 "of a kind of piracy so defined. The consistent story is how last "
3652 "generation's pirates join this generation's country club—until now."
3655 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
3656 #: freeculture.xml:2813
3660 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
3661 #: freeculture.xml:2817
3663 "I am grateful to Peter DiMauro for pointing me to this extraordinary "
3664 "history. See also Siva Vaidhyanathan, <citetitle>Copyrights and "
3665 "Copywrongs</citetitle>, 87–93, which details Edison's \"adventures\" "
3666 "with copyright and patent. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
3670 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
3671 #: freeculture.xml:2815
3673 "The film industry of Hollywood was built by fleeing pirates.<placeholder "
3674 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Creators and directors migrated from the East "
3675 "Coast to California in the early twentieth century in part to escape "
3676 "controls that patents granted the inventor of filmmaking, Thomas "
3677 "Edison. These controls were exercised through a monopoly \"trust,\" the "
3678 "Motion Pictures Patents Company, and were based on Thomas Edison's creative "
3679 "property—patents. Edison formed the MPPC to exercise the rights this "
3680 "creative property gave him, and the MPPC was serious about the control it "
3684 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
3685 #: freeculture.xml:2833
3686 msgid "As one commentator tells one part of the story,"
3689 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
3690 #: freeculture.xml:2837
3692 "A January 1909 deadline was set for all companies to comply with the "
3693 "license. By February, unlicensed outlaws, who referred to themselves as "
3694 "independents protested the trust and carried on business without submitting "
3695 "to the Edison monopoly. In the summer of 1909 the independent movement was "
3696 "in full-swing, with producers and theater owners using illegal equipment and "
3697 "imported film stock to create their own underground market."
3701 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
3702 #: freeculture.xml:2857
3704 "J. A. Aberdeen, <citetitle>Hollywood Renegades: The Society of Independent "
3705 "Motion Picture Producers</citetitle> (Cobblestone Entertainment, 2000) and "
3706 "expanded texts posted at \"The Edison Movie Monopoly: The Motion Picture "
3707 "Patents Company vs. the Independent Outlaws,\" available at <ulink "
3708 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #11</ulink>. For a discussion of "
3709 "the economic motive behind both these limits and the limits imposed by "
3710 "Victor on phonographs, see Randal C. Picker, \"From Edison to the Broadcast "
3711 "Flag: Mechanisms of Consent and Refusal and the Propertization of "
3712 "Copyright\" (September 2002), University of Chicago Law School, James "
3713 "M. Olin Program in Law and Economics, Working Paper No. 159."
3716 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><indexterm><primary>
3717 #: freeculture.xml:2868
3718 msgid "Fox, William"
3721 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><indexterm><primary>
3722 #: freeculture.xml:2869
3723 msgid "General Film Company"
3726 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
3727 #: freeculture.xml:2870 freeculture.xml:3122 freeculture.xml:4222 freeculture.xml:9567
3728 msgid "Picker, Randal C."
3731 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
3732 #: freeculture.xml:2846
3734 "With the country experiencing a tremendous expansion in the number of "
3735 "nickelodeons, the Patents Company reacted to the independent movement by "
3736 "forming a strong-arm subsidiary known as the General Film Company to block "
3737 "the entry of non-licensed independents. With coercive tactics that have "
3738 "become legendary, General Film confiscated unlicensed equipment, "
3739 "discontinued product supply to theaters which showed unlicensed films, and "
3740 "effectively monopolized distribution with the acquisition of all U.S. film "
3741 "exchanges, except for the one owned by the independent William Fox who "
3742 "defied the Trust even after his license was revoked.<placeholder "
3743 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> "
3744 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
3749 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
3750 #: freeculture.xml:2880
3752 "Marc Wanamaker, \"The First Studios,\" <citetitle>The Silents "
3753 "Majority</citetitle>, archived at <ulink "
3754 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #12</ulink>."
3757 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
3758 #: freeculture.xml:2874
3760 "The Napsters of those days, the \"independents,\" were companies like "
3761 "Fox. And no less than today, these independents were vigorously resisted. "
3762 "\"Shooting was disrupted by machinery stolen, and `accidents' resulting in "
3763 "loss of negatives, equipment, buildings and sometimes life and limb "
3764 "frequently occurred.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> That led the "
3765 "independents to flee the East Coast. California was remote enough from "
3766 "Edison's reach that filmmakers there could pirate his inventions without "
3767 "fear of the law. And the leaders of Hollywood filmmaking, Fox most "
3768 "prominently, did just that."
3772 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
3773 #: freeculture.xml:2890
3775 "Of course, California grew quickly, and the effective enforcement of federal "
3776 "law eventually spread west. But because patents grant the patent holder a "
3777 "truly \"limited\" monopoly (just seventeen years at that time), by the time "
3778 "enough federal marshals appeared, the patents had expired. A new industry "
3779 "had been born, in part from the piracy of Edison's creative property."
3782 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
3783 #: freeculture.xml:2901
3784 msgid "Recorded Music"
3787 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
3788 #: freeculture.xml:2903
3790 "The record industry was born of another kind of piracy, though to see how "
3791 "requires a bit of detail about the way the law regulates music."
3794 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
3795 #: freeculture.xml:2907
3796 msgid "Fourneaux, Henri"
3799 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
3800 #: freeculture.xml:2910
3802 "At the time that Edison and Henri Fourneaux invented machines for "
3803 "reproducing music (Edison the phonograph, Fourneaux the player piano), the "
3804 "law gave composers the exclusive right to control copies of their music and "
3805 "the exclusive right to control public performances of their music. In other "
3806 "words, in 1900, if I wanted a copy of Phil Russel's 1899 hit \"Happy Mose,\" "
3807 "the law said I would have to pay for the right to get a copy of the musical "
3808 "score, and I would also have to pay for the right to perform it publicly."
3811 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
3812 #: freeculture.xml:2919 freeculture.xml:3067
3816 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
3817 #: freeculture.xml:2921
3819 "But what if I wanted to record \"Happy Mose,\" using Edison's phonograph or "
3820 "Fourneaux's player piano? Here the law stumbled. It was clear enough that I "
3821 "would have to buy any copy of the musical score that I performed in making "
3822 "this recording. And it was clear enough that I would have to pay for any "
3823 "public performance of the work I was recording. But it wasn't totally clear "
3824 "that I would have to pay for a \"public performance\" if I recorded the song "
3825 "in my own house (even today, you don't owe the Beatles anything if you sing "
3826 "their songs in the shower), or if I recorded the song from memory (copies in "
3827 "your brain are not—yet— regulated by copyright law). So if I "
3828 "simply sang the song into a recording device in the privacy of my own home, "
3829 "it wasn't clear that I owed the composer anything. And more importantly, it "
3830 "wasn't clear whether I owed the composer anything if I then made copies of "
3831 "those recordings. Because of this gap in the law, then, I could effectively "
3832 "pirate someone else's song without paying its composer anything."
3835 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
3836 #: freeculture.xml:2944 freeculture.xml:2961
3837 msgid "Kittredge, Alfred"
3840 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
3841 #: freeculture.xml:2940
3843 "The composers (and publishers) were none too happy about this capacity to "
3844 "pirate. As South Dakota senator Alfred Kittredge put it, <placeholder "
3845 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
3848 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
3849 #: freeculture.xml:2955
3851 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright: Hearings on S. 6330 "
3852 "and H.R. 19853 Before the ( Joint) Committees on Patents, 59th Cong. 59, 1st "
3853 "sess. (1906) (statement of Senator Alfred B. Kittredge, of South Dakota, "
3854 "chairman), reprinted in <citetitle>Legislative History of the Copyright "
3855 "Act</citetitle>, E. Fulton Brylawski and Abe Goldman, eds. (South "
3856 "Hackensack, N.J.: Rothman Reprints, 1976). <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
3860 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
3861 #: freeculture.xml:2948
3863 "Imagine the injustice of the thing. A composer writes a song or an opera. A "
3864 "publisher buys at great expense the rights to the same and copyrights "
3865 "it. Along come the phonographic companies and companies who cut music rolls "
3866 "and deliberately steal the work of the brain of the composer and publisher "
3867 "without any regard for [their] rights.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
3872 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
3873 #: freeculture.xml:2970
3875 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright, 223 (statement of "
3876 "Nathan Burkan, attorney for the Music Publishers Association)."
3880 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
3881 #: freeculture.xml:2976
3883 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright, 226 (statement of "
3884 "Nathan Burkan, attorney for the Music Publishers Association)."
3888 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
3889 #: freeculture.xml:2983
3891 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright, 23 (statement of "
3892 "John Philip Sousa, composer)."
3895 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
3896 #: freeculture.xml:2966
3898 "The innovators who developed the technology to record other people's works "
3899 "were \"sponging upon the toil, the work, the talent, and genius of American "
3900 "composers,\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> and the \"music "
3901 "publishing industry\" was thereby \"at the complete mercy of this one "
3902 "pirate.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> As John Philip Sousa put "
3903 "it, in as direct a way as possible, \"When they make money out of my pieces, "
3904 "I want a share of it.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/>"
3908 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
3909 #: freeculture.xml:2996
3911 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright, 283–84 "
3912 "(statement of Albert Walker, representative of the Auto-Music Perforating "
3913 "Company of New York)."
3917 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
3918 #: freeculture.xml:3007
3920 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright, 376 (prepared "
3921 "memorandum of Philip Mauro, general patent counsel of the American "
3922 "Graphophone Company Association)."
3925 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
3926 #: freeculture.xml:3011
3927 msgid "American Graphophone Company"
3930 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
3931 #: freeculture.xml:2988
3933 "These arguments have familiar echoes in the wars of our day. So, too, do the "
3934 "arguments on the other side. The innovators who developed the player piano "
3935 "argued that \"it is perfectly demonstrable that the introduction of "
3936 "automatic music players has not deprived any composer of anything he had "
3937 "before their introduction.\" Rather, the machines increased the sales of "
3938 "sheet music.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> In any case, the "
3939 "innovators argued, the job of Congress was \"to consider first the interest "
3940 "of [the public], whom they represent, and whose servants they are.\" \"All "
3941 "talk about `theft,'\" the general counsel of the American Graphophone "
3942 "Company wrote, \"is the merest claptrap, for there exists no property in "
3943 "ideas musical, literary or artistic, except as defined by "
3944 "statute.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> <placeholder "
3945 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/>"
3949 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
3950 #: freeculture.xml:3014
3952 "The law soon resolved this battle in favor of the composer "
3953 "<emphasis>and</emphasis> the recording artist. Congress amended the law to "
3954 "make sure that composers would be paid for the \"mechanical reproductions\" "
3955 "of their music. But rather than simply granting the composer complete "
3956 "control over the right to make mechanical reproductions, Congress gave "
3957 "recording artists a right to record the music, at a price set by Congress, "
3958 "once the composer allowed it to be recorded once. This is the part of "
3959 "copyright law that makes cover songs possible. Once a composer authorizes a "
3960 "recording of his song, others are free to record the same song, so long as "
3961 "they pay the original composer a fee set by the law."
3964 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
3965 #: freeculture.xml:3029
3967 "American law ordinarily calls this a \"compulsory license,\" but I will "
3968 "refer to it as a \"statutory license.\" A statutory license is a license "
3969 "whose key terms are set by law. After Congress's amendment of the Copyright "
3970 "Act in 1909, record companies were free to distribute copies of recordings "
3971 "so long as they paid the composer (or copyright holder) the fee set by the "
3975 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
3976 #: freeculture.xml:3044 freeculture.xml:13861
3977 msgid "Grisham, John"
3980 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
3981 #: freeculture.xml:3037
3983 "This is an exception within the law of copyright. When John Grisham writes a "
3984 "novel, a publisher is free to publish that novel only if Grisham gives the "
3985 "publisher permission. Grisham, in turn, is free to charge whatever he wants "
3986 "for that permission. The price to publish Grisham is thus set by Grisham, "
3987 "and copyright law ordinarily says you have no permission to use Grisham's "
3988 "work except with permission of Grisham. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
3993 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
3994 #: freeculture.xml:3061
3996 "Copyright Law Revision: Hearings on S. 2499, S. 2900, H.R. 243, and "
3997 "H.R. 11794 Before the ( Joint) Committee on Patents, 60th Cong., 1st sess., "
3998 "217 (1908) (statement of Senator Reed Smoot, chairman), reprinted in "
3999 "<citetitle>Legislative History of the 1909 Copyright Act</citetitle>, "
4000 "E. Fulton Brylawski and Abe Goldman, eds. (South Hackensack, N.J.: Rothman "
4004 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4005 #: freeculture.xml:3047
4007 "But the law governing recordings gives recording artists less. And thus, in "
4008 "effect, the law <emphasis>subsidizes</emphasis> the recording industry "
4009 "through a kind of piracy—by giving recording artists a weaker right "
4010 "than it otherwise gives creative authors. The Beatles have less control over "
4011 "their creative work than Grisham does. And the beneficiaries of this less "
4012 "control are the recording industry and the public. The recording industry "
4013 "gets something of value for less than it otherwise would pay; the public "
4014 "gets access to a much wider range of musical creativity. Indeed, Congress "
4015 "was quite explicit about its reasons for granting this right. Its fear was "
4016 "the monopoly power of rights holders, and that that power would stifle "
4017 "follow-on creativity.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
4018 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
4021 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4022 #: freeculture.xml:3070
4024 "While the recording industry has been quite coy about this recently, "
4025 "historically it has been quite a supporter of the statutory license for "
4026 "records. As a 1967 report from the House Committee on the Judiciary relates,"
4030 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
4031 #: freeculture.xml:3092
4033 "Copyright Law Revision: Report to Accompany H.R. 2512, House Committee on "
4034 "the Judiciary, 90th Cong., 1st sess., House Document no. 83, (8 March "
4035 "1967). I am grateful to Glenn Brown for drawing my attention to this report."
4038 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
4039 #: freeculture.xml:3077
4041 "the record producers argued vigorously that the compulsory license system "
4042 "must be retained. They asserted that the record industry is a "
4043 "half-billion-dollar business of great economic importance in the United "
4044 "States and throughout the world; records today are the principal means of "
4045 "disseminating music, and this creates special problems, since performers "
4046 "need unhampered access to musical material on nondiscriminatory "
4047 "terms. Historically, the record producers pointed out, there were no "
4048 "recording rights before 1909 and the 1909 statute adopted the compulsory "
4049 "license as a deliberate anti-monopoly condition on the grant of these "
4050 "rights. They argue that the result has been an outpouring of recorded music, "
4051 "with the public being given lower prices, improved quality, and a greater "
4052 "choice.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
4055 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4056 #: freeculture.xml:3099
4058 "By limiting the rights musicians have, by partially pirating their creative "
4059 "work, the record producers, and the public, benefit."
4062 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
4063 #: freeculture.xml:3104 freeculture.xml:4187
4067 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4068 #: freeculture.xml:3106
4069 msgid "Radio was also born of piracy."
4072 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
4073 #: freeculture.xml:3121
4074 msgid "Hand, Learned"
4077 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4078 #: freeculture.xml:3112
4080 "See 17 <citetitle>United States Code</citetitle>, sections 106 and 110. At "
4081 "the beginning, record companies printed \"Not Licensed for Radio Broadcast\" "
4082 "and other messages purporting to restrict the ability to play a record on a "
4083 "radio station. Judge Learned Hand rejected the argument that a warning "
4084 "attached to a record might restrict the rights of the radio station. See "
4085 "<citetitle>RCA Manufacturing "
4086 "Co</citetitle>. v. <citetitle>Whiteman</citetitle>, 114 F. 2d 86 (2nd "
4087 "Cir. 1940). See also Randal C. Picker, \"From Edison to the Broadcast Flag: "
4088 "Mechanisms of Consent and Refusal and the Propertization of Copyright,\" "
4089 "<citetitle>University of Chicago Law Review</citetitle> 70 (2003): 281. "
4090 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
4094 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4095 #: freeculture.xml:3109
4097 "When a radio station plays a record on the air, that constitutes a \"public "
4098 "performance\" of the composer's work.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
4099 "id=\"0\"/> As I described above, the law gives the composer (or copyright "
4100 "holder) an exclusive right to public performances of his work. The radio "
4101 "station thus owes the composer money for that performance."
4104 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
4105 #: freeculture.xml:3139 freeculture.xml:8661 freeculture.xml:9118 freeculture.xml:12030
4106 msgid "Lovett, Lyle"
4110 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4111 #: freeculture.xml:3129
4113 "But when the radio station plays a record, it is not only performing a copy "
4114 "of the <emphasis>composer's</emphasis> work. The radio station is also "
4115 "performing a copy of the <emphasis>recording artist's</emphasis> work. It's "
4116 "one thing to have \"Happy Birthday\" sung on the radio by the local "
4117 "children's choir; it's quite another to have it sung by the Rolling Stones "
4118 "or Lyle Lovett. The recording artist is adding to the value of the "
4119 "composition performed on the radio station. And if the law were perfectly "
4120 "consistent, the radio station would have to pay the recording artist for his "
4121 "work, just as it pays the composer of the music for his work. <placeholder "
4122 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
4125 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4126 #: freeculture.xml:3144
4128 "But it doesn't. Under the law governing radio performances, the radio "
4129 "station does not have to pay the recording artist. The radio station need "
4130 "only pay the composer. The radio station thus gets a bit of something for "
4131 "nothing. It gets to perform the recording artist's work for free, even if it "
4132 "must pay the composer something for the privilege of playing the song."
4135 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
4136 #: freeculture.xml:3152 freeculture.xml:3648 freeculture.xml:6029
4140 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4141 #: freeculture.xml:3155
4143 "This difference can be huge. Imagine you compose a piece of music. Imagine "
4144 "it is your first. You own the exclusive right to authorize public "
4145 "performances of that music. So if Madonna wants to sing your song in public, "
4146 "she has to get your permission."
4149 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4150 #: freeculture.xml:3161
4152 "Imagine she does sing your song, and imagine she likes it a lot. She then "
4153 "decides to make a recording of your song, and it becomes a top hit. Under "
4154 "our law, every time a radio station plays your song, you get some money. But "
4155 "Madonna gets nothing, save the indirect effect on the sale of her CDs. The "
4156 "public performance of her recording is not a \"protected\" right. The radio "
4157 "station thus gets to <emphasis>pirate</emphasis> the value of Madonna's work "
4158 "without paying her anything."
4161 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4162 #: freeculture.xml:3172
4164 "No doubt, one might argue that, on balance, the recording artists "
4165 "benefit. On average, the promotion they get is worth more than the "
4166 "performance rights they give up. Maybe. But even if so, the law ordinarily "
4167 "gives the creator the right to make this choice. By making the choice for "
4168 "him or her, the law gives the radio station the right to take something for "
4172 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
4173 #: freeculture.xml:3181 freeculture.xml:4193
4177 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4178 #: freeculture.xml:3184
4179 msgid "Cable TV was also born of a kind of piracy."
4183 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4184 #: freeculture.xml:3187
4186 "When cable entrepreneurs first started wiring communities with cable "
4187 "television in 1948, most refused to pay broadcasters for the content that "
4188 "they echoed to their customers. Even when the cable companies started "
4189 "selling access to television broadcasts, they refused to pay for what they "
4190 "sold. Cable companies were thus Napsterizing broadcasters' content, but more "
4191 "egregiously than anything Napster ever did— Napster never charged for "
4192 "the content it enabled others to give away."
4195 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4196 #: freeculture.xml:3197
4197 msgid "Anello, Douglas"
4200 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4201 #: freeculture.xml:3198
4202 msgid "Burdick, Quentin"
4206 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4207 #: freeculture.xml:3204
4209 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV: Hearing on S. 1006 Before the "
4210 "Subcommittee on Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights of the Senate Committee "
4211 "on the Judiciary, 89th Cong., 2nd sess., 78 (1966) (statement of Rosel "
4212 "H. Hyde, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission)."
4216 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4217 #: freeculture.xml:3215
4219 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV, 116 (statement of Douglas A. Anello, "
4220 "general counsel of the National Association of Broadcasters)."
4223 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4224 #: freeculture.xml:3200
4226 "Broadcasters and copyright owners were quick to attack this theft. Rosel "
4227 "Hyde, chairman of the FCC, viewed the practice as a kind of \"unfair and "
4228 "potentially destructive competition.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
4229 "id=\"0\"/> There may have been a \"public interest\" in spreading the reach "
4230 "of cable TV, but as Douglas Anello, general counsel to the National "
4231 "Association of Broadcasters, asked Senator Quentin Burdick during testimony, "
4232 "\"Does public interest dictate that you use somebody else's "
4233 "property?\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> As another broadcaster "
4238 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
4239 #: freeculture.xml:3226
4241 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV, 126 (statement of Ernest W. Jennes, "
4242 "general counsel of the Association of Maximum Service Telecasters, Inc.)."
4245 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
4246 #: freeculture.xml:3222
4248 "The extraordinary thing about the CATV business is that it is the only "
4249 "business I know of where the product that is being sold is not paid "
4250 "for.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
4253 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4254 #: freeculture.xml:3232
4255 msgid "Again, the demand of the copyright holders seemed reasonable enough:"
4259 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
4260 #: freeculture.xml:3241
4262 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV, 169 (joint statement of Arthur B. Krim, "
4263 "president of United Artists Corp., and John Sinn, president of United "
4264 "Artists Television, Inc.)."
4267 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
4268 #: freeculture.xml:3236
4270 "All we are asking for is a very simple thing, that people who now take our "
4271 "property for nothing pay for it. We are trying to stop piracy and I don't "
4272 "think there is any lesser word to describe it. I think there are harsher "
4273 "words which would fit it.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
4277 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4278 #: freeculture.xml:3252
4280 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV, 209 (statement of Charlton Heston, "
4281 "president of the Screen Actors Guild)."
4284 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4285 #: freeculture.xml:3248
4287 "These were \"free-ride[rs],\" Screen Actor's Guild president Charlton Heston "
4288 "said, who were \"depriving actors of compensation.\"<placeholder "
4289 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
4292 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4293 #: freeculture.xml:3257
4295 "But again, there was another side to the debate. As Assistant Attorney "
4296 "General Edwin Zimmerman put it,"
4299 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><indexterm><primary>
4300 #: freeculture.xml:3273 freeculture.xml:3275
4301 msgid "Zimmerman, Edwin"
4304 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
4305 #: freeculture.xml:3271
4307 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV, 216 (statement of Edwin M. Zimmerman, "
4308 "acting assistant attorney general). <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
4312 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
4313 #: freeculture.xml:3262
4315 "Our point here is that unlike the problem of whether you have any copyright "
4316 "protection at all, the problem here is whether copyright holders who are "
4317 "already compensated, who already have a monopoly, should be permitted to "
4318 "extend that monopoly. … The question here is how much compensation "
4319 "they should have and how far back they should carry their right to "
4320 "compensation.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
4321 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
4324 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4325 #: freeculture.xml:3279
4327 "Copyright owners took the cable companies to court. Twice the Supreme Court "
4328 "held that the cable companies owed the copyright owners nothing."
4331 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4332 #: freeculture.xml:3283
4334 "It took Congress almost thirty years before it resolved the question of "
4335 "whether cable companies had to pay for the content they \"pirated.\" In the "
4336 "end, Congress resolved this question in the same way that it resolved the "
4337 "question about record players and player pianos. Yes, cable companies would "
4338 "have to pay for the content that they broadcast; but the price they would "
4339 "have to pay was not set by the copyright owner. The price was set by law, "
4340 "so that the broadcasters couldn't exercise veto power over the emerging "
4341 "technologies of cable. Cable companies thus built their empire in part upon "
4342 "a \"piracy\" of the value created by broadcasters' content."
4346 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4347 #: freeculture.xml:3300
4349 "See, for example, National Music Publisher's Association, <citetitle>The "
4350 "Engine of Free Expression: Copyright on the Internet—The Myth of Free "
4351 "Information</citetitle>, available at <ulink "
4352 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #13</ulink>. \"The threat of "
4353 "piracy—the use of someone else's creative work without permission or "
4354 "compensation—has grown with the Internet.\""
4357 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4358 #: freeculture.xml:3295
4360 "These separate stories sing a common theme. If \"piracy\" means using value "
4361 "from someone else's creative property without permission from that "
4362 "creator—as it is increasingly described today<placeholder "
4363 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> — then <emphasis>every</emphasis> "
4364 "industry affected by copyright today is the product and beneficiary of a "
4365 "certain kind of piracy. Film, records, radio, cable TV. … The list is "
4366 "long and could well be expanded. Every generation welcomes the pirates from "
4367 "the last. Every generation—until now."
4370 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
4371 #: freeculture.xml:3317
4372 msgid "CHAPTER FIVE: \"Piracy\""
4375 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4376 #: freeculture.xml:3319
4378 "There is piracy of copyrighted material. Lots of it. This piracy comes in "
4379 "many forms. The most significant is commercial piracy, the unauthorized "
4380 "taking of other people's content within a commercial context. Despite the "
4381 "many justifications that are offered in its defense, this taking is "
4382 "wrong. No one should condone it, and the law should stop it."
4386 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4387 #: freeculture.xml:3327
4389 "But as well as copy-shop piracy, there is another kind of \"taking\" that is "
4390 "more directly related to the Internet. That taking, too, seems wrong to "
4391 "many, and it is wrong much of the time. Before we paint this taking "
4392 "\"piracy,\" however, we should understand its nature a bit more. For the "
4393 "harm of this taking is significantly more ambiguous than outright copying, "
4394 "and the law should account for that ambiguity, as it has so often done in "
4398 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
4399 #: freeculture.xml:3337
4404 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4405 #: freeculture.xml:3345
4407 "See IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry), "
4408 "<citetitle>The Recording Industry Commercial Piracy Report 2003</citetitle>, "
4409 "July 2003, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
4410 "#14</ulink>. See also Ben Hunt, \"Companies Warned on Music Piracy Risk,\" "
4411 "<citetitle>Financial Times</citetitle>, 14 February 2003, 11."
4414 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4415 #: freeculture.xml:3339
4417 "All across the world, but especially in Asia and Eastern Europe, there are "
4418 "businesses that do nothing but take others people's copyrighted content, "
4419 "copy it, and sell it—all without the permission of a copyright "
4420 "owner. The recording industry estimates that it loses about $4.6 billion "
4421 "every year to physical piracy<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> (that "
4422 "works out to one in three CDs sold worldwide). The MPAA estimates that it "
4423 "loses $3 billion annually worldwide to piracy."
4426 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4427 #: freeculture.xml:3355
4429 "This is piracy plain and simple. Nothing in the argument of this book, nor "
4430 "in the argument that most people make when talking about the subject of this "
4431 "book, should draw into doubt this simple point: This piracy is wrong."
4434 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4435 #: freeculture.xml:3361
4437 "Which is not to say that excuses and justifications couldn't be made for "
4438 "it. We could, for example, remind ourselves that for the first one hundred "
4439 "years of the American Republic, America did not honor foreign copyrights. We "
4440 "were born, in this sense, a pirate nation. It might therefore seem "
4441 "hypocritical for us to insist so strongly that other developing nations "
4442 "treat as wrong what we, for the first hundred years of our existence, "
4446 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4447 #: freeculture.xml:3370
4449 "That excuse isn't terribly strong. Technically, our law did not ban the "
4450 "taking of foreign works. It explicitly limited itself to American "
4451 "works. Thus the American publishers who published foreign works without the "
4452 "permission of foreign authors were not violating any rule. The copy shops "
4453 "in Asia, by contrast, are violating Asian law. Asian law does protect "
4454 "foreign copyrights, and the actions of the copy shops violate that law. So "
4455 "the wrong of piracy that they engage in is not just a moral wrong, but a "
4456 "legal wrong, and not just an internationally legal wrong, but a locally "
4457 "legal wrong as well."
4461 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4462 #: freeculture.xml:3381
4464 "True, these local rules have, in effect, been imposed upon these "
4465 "countries. No country can be part of the world economy and choose not to "
4466 "protect copyright internationally. We may have been born a pirate nation, "
4467 "but we will not allow any other nation to have a similar childhood."
4470 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
4471 #: freeculture.xml:3408 freeculture.xml:12310 freeculture.xml:12743 freeculture.xml:12750
4472 msgid "Drahos, Peter"
4475 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4476 #: freeculture.xml:3394
4478 "See Peter Drahos with John Braithwaite, Information Feudalism: "
4479 "<citetitle>Who Owns the Knowledge Economy?</citetitle> (New York: The New "
4480 "Press, 2003), 10–13, 209. The Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual "
4481 "Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement obligates member nations to create "
4482 "administrative and enforcement mechanisms for intellectual property rights, "
4483 "a costly proposition for developing countries. Additionally, patent rights "
4484 "may lead to higher prices for staple industries such as agriculture. Critics "
4485 "of TRIPS question the disparity between burdens imposed upon developing "
4486 "countries and benefits conferred to industrialized nations. TRIPS does "
4487 "permit governments to use patents for public, noncommercial uses without "
4488 "first obtaining the patent holder's permission. Developing nations may be "
4489 "able to use this to gain the benefits of foreign patents at lower "
4490 "prices. This is a promising strategy for developing nations within the TRIPS "
4491 "framework. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
4494 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4495 #: freeculture.xml:3389
4497 "If a country is to be treated as a sovereign, however, then its laws are its "
4498 "laws regardless of their source. The international law under which these "
4499 "nations live gives them some opportunities to escape the burden of "
4500 "intellectual property law.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> In my "
4501 "view, more developing nations should take advantage of that opportunity, but "
4502 "when they don't, then their laws should be respected. And under the laws of "
4503 "these nations, this piracy is wrong."
4506 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
4507 #: freeculture.xml:3428 freeculture.xml:3695 freeculture.xml:14392
4508 msgid "Liebowitz, Stan"
4511 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4512 #: freeculture.xml:3421
4514 "For an analysis of the economic impact of copying technology, see Stan "
4515 "Liebowitz, <citetitle>Rethinking the Network Economy</citetitle> (New York: "
4516 "Amacom, 2002), 144–90. \"In some instances … the impact of "
4517 "piracy on the copyright holder's ability to appropriate the value of the "
4518 "work will be negligible. One obvious instance is the case where the "
4519 "individual engaging in pirating would not have purchased an original even if "
4520 "pirating were not an option.\" Ibid., 149. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
4524 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4525 #: freeculture.xml:3415
4527 "Alternatively, we could try to excuse this piracy by noting that in any "
4528 "case, it does no harm to the industry. The Chinese who get access to "
4529 "American CDs at 50 cents a copy are not people who would have bought those "
4530 "American CDs at $15 a copy. So no one really has any less money than they "
4531 "otherwise would have had.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
4534 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4535 #: freeculture.xml:3432
4537 "This is often true (though I have friends who have purchased many thousands "
4538 "of pirated DVDs who certainly have enough money to pay for the content they "
4539 "have taken), and it does mitigate to some degree the harm caused by such "
4540 "taking. Extremists in this debate love to say, \"You wouldn't go into Barnes "
4541 "& Noble and take a book off of the shelf without paying; why should it "
4542 "be any different with on-line music?\" The difference is, of course, that "
4543 "when you take a book from Barnes & Noble, it has one less book to "
4544 "sell. By contrast, when you take an MP3 from a computer network, there is "
4545 "not one less CD that can be sold. The physics of piracy of the intangible "
4546 "are different from the physics of piracy of the tangible."
4550 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4551 #: freeculture.xml:3445
4553 "This argument is still very weak. However, although copyright is a property "
4554 "right of a very special sort, it <emphasis>is</emphasis> a property "
4555 "right. Like all property rights, the copyright gives the owner the right to "
4556 "decide the terms under which content is shared. If the copyright owner "
4557 "doesn't want to sell, she doesn't have to. There are exceptions: important "
4558 "statutory licenses that apply to copyrighted content regardless of the wish "
4559 "of the copyright owner. Those licenses give people the right to \"take\" "
4560 "copyrighted content whether or not the copyright owner wants to sell. But "
4561 "where the law does not give people the right to take content, it is wrong to "
4562 "take that content even if the wrong does no harm. If we have a property "
4563 "system, and that system is properly balanced to the technology of a time, "
4564 "then it is wrong to take property without the permission of a property "
4565 "owner. That is exactly what \"property\" means."
4568 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
4569 #: freeculture.xml:3474 freeculture.xml:3502 freeculture.xml:11161 freeculture.xml:12624 freeculture.xml:13176
4570 msgid "GNU/Linux operating system"
4573 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
4574 #: freeculture.xml:3475 freeculture.xml:3505 freeculture.xml:11163 freeculture.xml:12625 freeculture.xml:13177
4575 msgid "Linux operating system"
4578 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
4579 #: freeculture.xml:3477
4583 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><secondary>
4584 #: freeculture.xml:3478
4585 msgid "Windows operating system of"
4588 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
4589 #: freeculture.xml:3480
4593 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4594 #: freeculture.xml:3463
4596 "Finally, we could try to excuse this piracy with the argument that the "
4597 "piracy actually helps the copyright owner. When the Chinese \"steal\" "
4598 "Windows, that makes the Chinese dependent on Microsoft. Microsoft loses the "
4599 "value of the software that was taken. But it gains users who are used to "
4600 "life in the Microsoft world. Over time, as the nation grows more wealthy, "
4601 "more and more people will buy software rather than steal it. And hence over "
4602 "time, because that buying will benefit Microsoft, Microsoft benefits from "
4603 "the piracy. If instead of pirating Microsoft Windows, the Chinese used the "
4604 "free GNU/Linux operating system, then these Chinese users would not "
4605 "eventually be buying Microsoft. Without piracy, then, Microsoft would "
4606 "lose. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
4607 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> "
4608 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/>"
4611 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4612 #: freeculture.xml:3483
4614 "This argument, too, is somewhat true. The addiction strategy is a good "
4615 "one. Many businesses practice it. Some thrive because of it. Law students, "
4616 "for example, are given free access to the two largest legal databases. The "
4617 "companies marketing both hope the students will become so used to their "
4618 "service that they will want to use it and not the other when they become "
4619 "lawyers (and must pay high subscription fees)."
4622 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
4623 #: freeculture.xml:3503
4624 msgid "Internet Explorer"
4627 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
4628 #: freeculture.xml:3504
4632 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4633 #: freeculture.xml:3491
4635 "Still, the argument is not terribly persuasive. We don't give the alcoholic "
4636 "a defense when he steals his first beer, merely because that will make it "
4637 "more likely that he will buy the next three. Instead, we ordinarily allow "
4638 "businesses to decide for themselves when it is best to give their product "
4639 "away. If Microsoft fears the competition of GNU/Linux, then Microsoft can "
4640 "give its product away, as it did, for example, with Internet Explorer to "
4641 "fight Netscape. A property right means giving the property owner the right "
4642 "to say who gets access to what—at least ordinarily. And if the law "
4643 "properly balances the rights of the copyright owner with the rights of "
4644 "access, then violating the law is still wrong. <placeholder "
4645 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> "
4646 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
4651 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4652 #: freeculture.xml:3509
4654 "Thus, while I understand the pull of these justifications for piracy, and I "
4655 "certainly see the motivation, in my view, in the end, these efforts at "
4656 "justifying commercial piracy simply don't cut it. This kind of piracy is "
4657 "rampant and just plain wrong. It doesn't transform the content it steals; it "
4658 "doesn't transform the market it competes in. It merely gives someone access "
4659 "to something that the law says he should not have. Nothing has changed to "
4660 "draw that law into doubt. This form of piracy is flat out wrong."
4663 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4664 #: freeculture.xml:3519
4666 "But as the examples from the four chapters that introduced this part "
4667 "suggest, even if some piracy is plainly wrong, not all \"piracy\" is. Or at "
4668 "least, not all \"piracy\" is wrong if that term is understood in the way it "
4669 "is increasingly used today. Many kinds of \"piracy\" are useful and "
4670 "productive, to produce either new content or new ways of doing business. "
4671 "Neither our tradition nor any tradition has ever banned all \"piracy\" in "
4672 "that sense of the term."
4675 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4676 #: freeculture.xml:3528
4678 "This doesn't mean that there are no questions raised by the latest piracy "
4679 "concern, peer-to-peer file sharing. But it does mean that we need to "
4680 "understand the harm in peer-to-peer sharing a bit more before we condemn it "
4681 "to the gallows with the charge of piracy."
4684 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4685 #: freeculture.xml:3534
4687 "For (1) like the original Hollywood, p2p sharing escapes an overly "
4688 "controlling industry; and (2) like the original recording industry, it "
4689 "simply exploits a new way to distribute content; but (3) unlike cable TV, no "
4690 "one is selling the content that is shared on p2p services."
4693 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4694 #: freeculture.xml:3540
4696 "These differences distinguish p2p sharing from true piracy. They should push "
4697 "us to find a way to protect artists while enabling this sharing to survive."
4700 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
4701 #: freeculture.xml:3546
4706 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4707 #: freeculture.xml:3551
4709 "<citetitle>Bach</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Longman</citetitle>, 98 "
4710 "Eng. Rep. 1274 (1777)."
4714 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4715 #: freeculture.xml:3548
4717 "The key to the \"piracy\" that the law aims to quash is a use that \"rob[s] "
4718 "the author of [his] profit.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> This "
4719 "means we must determine whether and how much p2p sharing harms before we "
4720 "know how strongly the law should seek to either prevent it or find an "
4721 "alternative to assure the author of his profit."
4724 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
4725 #: freeculture.xml:3574 freeculture.xml:8088
4726 msgid "Christensen, Clayton M."
4729 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4730 #: freeculture.xml:3565
4732 "See Clayton M. Christensen, <citetitle>The Innovator's Dilemma: The "
4733 "Revolutionary National Bestseller That Changed the Way We Do "
4734 "Business</citetitle> (New York: HarperBusiness, 2000). Professor Christensen "
4735 "examines why companies that give rise to and dominate a product area are "
4736 "frequently unable to come up with the most creative, paradigm-shifting uses "
4737 "for their own products. This job usually falls to outside innovators, who "
4738 "reassemble existing technology in inventive ways. For a discussion of "
4739 "Christensen's ideas, see Lawrence Lessig, <citetitle>Future</citetitle>, "
4740 "89–92, 139. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
4743 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
4744 #: freeculture.xml:3577
4745 msgid "Fanning, Shawn"
4748 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4749 #: freeculture.xml:3560
4751 "Peer-to-peer sharing was made famous by Napster. But the inventors of the "
4752 "Napster technology had not made any major technological innovations. Like "
4753 "every great advance in innovation on the Internet (and, arguably, off the "
4754 "Internet as well<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>), Shawn Fanning "
4755 "and crew had simply put together components that had been developed "
4756 "independently. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
4760 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4761 #: freeculture.xml:3585
4763 "See Carolyn Lochhead, \"Silicon Valley Dream, Hollywood Nightmare,\" "
4764 "<citetitle>San Francisco Chronicle</citetitle>, 24 September 2002, A1; "
4765 "\"Rock 'n' Roll Suicide,\" <citetitle>New Scientist</citetitle>, 6 July "
4766 "2002, 42; Benny Evangelista, \"Napster Names CEO, Secures New Financing,\" "
4767 "<citetitle>San Francisco Chronicle</citetitle>, 23 May 2003, C1; \"Napster's "
4768 "Wake-Up Call,\" <citetitle>Economist</citetitle>, 24 June 2000, 23; John "
4769 "Naughton, \"Hollywood at War with the Internet\" (London) "
4770 "<citetitle>Times</citetitle>, 26 July 2002, 18."
4773 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4774 #: freeculture.xml:3580
4776 "The result was spontaneous combustion. Launched in July 1999, Napster "
4777 "amassed over 10 million users within nine months. After eighteen months, "
4778 "there were close to 80 million registered users of the system.<placeholder "
4779 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Courts quickly shut Napster down, but other "
4780 "services emerged to take its place. (Kazaa is currently the most popular p2p "
4781 "service. It boasts over 100 million members.) These services' systems are "
4782 "different architecturally, though not very different in function: Each "
4783 "enables users to make content available to any number of other users. With a "
4784 "p2p system, you can share your favorite songs with your best friend— "
4785 "or your 20,000 best friends."
4789 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4790 #: freeculture.xml:3607
4792 "See Ipsos-Insight, <citetitle>TEMPO: Keeping Pace with Online Music "
4793 "Distribution</citetitle> (September 2002), reporting that 28 percent of "
4794 "Americans aged twelve and older have downloaded music off of the Internet "
4795 "and 30 percent have listened to digital music files stored on their "
4800 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4801 #: freeculture.xml:3616
4803 "Amy Harmon, \"Industry Offers a Carrot in Online Music Fight,\" "
4804 "<citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 6 June 2003, A1."
4807 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4808 #: freeculture.xml:3601
4810 "According to a number of estimates, a huge proportion of Americans have "
4811 "tasted file-sharing technology. A study by Ipsos-Insight in September 2002 "
4812 "estimated that 60 million Americans had downloaded music—28 percent of "
4813 "Americans older than 12.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> A survey "
4814 "by the NPD group quoted in <citetitle>The New York Times</citetitle> "
4815 "estimated that 43 million citizens used file-sharing networks to exchange "
4816 "content in May 2003.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> The vast "
4817 "majority of these are not kids. Whatever the actual figure, a massive "
4818 "quantity of content is being \"taken\" on these networks. The ease and "
4819 "inexpensiveness of file-sharing networks have inspired millions to enjoy "
4820 "music in a way that they hadn't before."
4823 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4824 #: freeculture.xml:3625
4826 "Some of this enjoying involves copyright infringement. Some of it does "
4827 "not. And even among the part that is technically copyright infringement, "
4828 "calculating the actual harm to copyright owners is more complicated than one "
4829 "might think. So consider—a bit more carefully than the polarized "
4830 "voices around this debate usually do—the kinds of sharing that file "
4831 "sharing enables, and the kinds of harm it entails."
4835 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4836 #: freeculture.xml:3635
4838 "File sharers share different kinds of content. We can divide these different "
4839 "kinds into four types."
4842 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
4843 #: freeculture.xml:3641
4845 "There are some who use sharing networks as substitutes for purchasing "
4846 "content. Thus, when a new Madonna CD is released, rather than buying the CD, "
4847 "these users simply take it. We might quibble about whether everyone who "
4848 "takes it would actually have bought it if sharing didn't make it available "
4849 "for free. Most probably wouldn't have, but clearly there are some who "
4850 "would. The latter are the target of category A: users who download instead "
4851 "of purchasing. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
4855 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
4856 #: freeculture.xml:3652
4858 "There are some who use sharing networks to sample music before purchasing "
4859 "it. Thus, a friend sends another friend an MP3 of an artist he's not heard "
4860 "of. The other friend then buys CDs by that artist. This is a kind of "
4861 "targeted advertising, quite likely to succeed. If the friend recommending "
4862 "the album gains nothing from a bad recommendation, then one could expect "
4863 "that the recommendations will actually be quite good. The net effect of this "
4864 "sharing could increase the quantity of music purchased."
4868 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
4869 #: freeculture.xml:3663
4871 "There are many who use sharing networks to get access to copyrighted content "
4872 "that is no longer sold or that they would not have purchased because the "
4873 "transaction costs off the Net are too high. This use of sharing networks is "
4874 "among the most rewarding for many. Songs that were part of your childhood "
4875 "but have long vanished from the marketplace magically appear again on the "
4876 "network. (One friend told me that when she discovered Napster, she spent a "
4877 "solid weekend \"recalling\" old songs. She was astonished at the range and "
4878 "mix of content that was available.) For content not sold, this is still "
4879 "technically a violation of copyright, though because the copyright owner is "
4880 "not selling the content anymore, the economic harm is zero—the same "
4881 "harm that occurs when I sell my collection of 1960s 45-rpm records to a "
4887 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
4888 #: freeculture.xml:3680
4890 "Finally, there are many who use sharing networks to get access to content "
4891 "that is not copyrighted or that the copyright owner wants to give away."
4894 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4895 #: freeculture.xml:3686
4896 msgid "How do these different types of sharing balance out?"
4899 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4900 #: freeculture.xml:3694
4902 "See Liebowitz, <citetitle>Rethinking the Network Economy</citetitle>, "
4903 "148–49. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
4906 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4907 #: freeculture.xml:3689
4909 "Let's start with some simple but important points. From the perspective of "
4910 "the law, only type D sharing is clearly legal. From the perspective of "
4911 "economics, only type A sharing is clearly harmful.<placeholder "
4912 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Type B sharing is illegal but plainly "
4913 "beneficial. Type C sharing is illegal, yet good for society (since more "
4914 "exposure to music is good) and harmless to the artist (since the work is "
4915 "not otherwise available). So how sharing matters on balance is a hard "
4916 "question to answer—and certainly much more difficult than the current "
4917 "rhetoric around the issue suggests."
4920 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4921 #: freeculture.xml:3705
4923 "Whether on balance sharing is harmful depends importantly on how harmful "
4924 "type A sharing is. Just as Edison complained about Hollywood, composers "
4925 "complained about piano rolls, recording artists complained about radio, and "
4926 "broadcasters complained about cable TV, the music industry complains that "
4927 "type A sharing is a kind of \"theft\" that is \"devastating\" the industry."
4931 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4932 #: freeculture.xml:3720
4934 "See Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, <citetitle>Technology Evolution and the "
4935 "Music Industry's Business Model Crisis</citetitle> (2003), 3. This report "
4936 "describes the music industry's effort to stigmatize the budding practice of "
4937 "cassette taping in the 1970s, including an advertising campaign featuring a "
4938 "cassette-shape skull and the caption \"Home taping is killing music.\" At "
4939 "the time digital audio tape became a threat, the Office of Technical "
4940 "Assessment conducted a survey of consumer behavior. In 1988, 40 percent of "
4941 "consumers older than ten had taped music to a cassette format. U.S. "
4942 "Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, <citetitle>Copyright and Home "
4943 "Copying: Technology Challenges the Law</citetitle>, OTA-CIT-422 (Washington, "
4944 "D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, October 1989), 145–56."
4947 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4948 #: freeculture.xml:3713
4950 "While the numbers do suggest that sharing is harmful, how harmful is harder "
4951 "to reckon. It has long been the recording industry's practice to blame "
4952 "technology for any drop in sales. The history of cassette recording is a "
4953 "good example. As a study by Cap Gemini Ernst & Young put it, \"Rather "
4954 "than exploiting this new, popular technology, the labels fought "
4955 "it.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The labels claimed that every "
4956 "album taped was an album unsold, and when record sales fell by 11.4 percent "
4957 "in 1981, the industry claimed that its point was proved. Technology was the "
4958 "problem, and banning or regulating technology was the answer."
4962 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4963 #: freeculture.xml:3746
4964 msgid "U.S. Congress, <citetitle>Copyright and Home Copying</citetitle>, 4."
4967 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4968 #: freeculture.xml:3738
4970 "Yet soon thereafter, and before Congress was given an opportunity to enact "
4971 "regulation, MTV was launched, and the industry had a record turnaround. \"In "
4972 "the end,\" Cap Gemini concludes, \"the `crisis' … was not the fault "
4973 "of the tapers—who did not [stop after MTV came into being]—but "
4974 "had to a large extent resulted from stagnation in musical innovation at the "
4975 "major labels.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
4978 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4979 #: freeculture.xml:3750
4981 "But just because the industry was wrong before does not mean it is wrong "
4982 "today. To evaluate the real threat that p2p sharing presents to the industry "
4983 "in particular, and society in general—or at least the society that "
4984 "inherits the tradition that gave us the film industry, the record industry, "
4985 "the radio industry, cable TV, and the VCR—the question is not simply "
4986 "whether type A sharing is harmful. The question is also "
4987 "<emphasis>how</emphasis> harmful type A sharing is, and how beneficial the "
4988 "other types of sharing are."
4991 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4992 #: freeculture.xml:3760
4994 "We start to answer this question by focusing on the net harm, from the "
4995 "standpoint of the industry as a whole, that sharing networks cause. The "
4996 "\"net harm\" to the industry as a whole is the amount by which type A "
4997 "sharing exceeds type B. If the record companies sold more records through "
4998 "sampling than they lost through substitution, then sharing networks would "
4999 "actually benefit music companies on balance. They would therefore have "
5000 "little <emphasis>static</emphasis> reason to resist them."
5003 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5004 #: freeculture.xml:3771
5006 "Could that be true? Could the industry as a whole be gaining because of file "
5007 "sharing? Odd as that might sound, the data about CD sales actually suggest "
5008 "it might be close."
5012 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5013 #: freeculture.xml:3780
5015 "See Recording Industry Association of America, <citetitle>2002 Yearend "
5016 "Statistics</citetitle>, available at <ulink "
5017 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #15</ulink>. A later report "
5018 "indicates even greater losses. See Recording Industry Association of "
5019 "America, <citetitle>Some Facts About Music Piracy</citetitle>, 25 June 2003, "
5020 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #16</ulink>: "
5021 "\"In the past four years, unit shipments of recorded music have fallen by 26 "
5022 "percent from 1.16 billion units in to 860 million units in 2002 in the "
5023 "United States (based on units shipped). In terms of sales, revenues are "
5024 "down 14 percent, from $14.6 billion in to $12.6 billion last year (based on "
5025 "U.S. dollar value of shipments). The music industry worldwide has gone from "
5026 "a $39 billion industry in 2000 down to a $32 billion industry in 2002 (based "
5027 "on U.S. dollar value of shipments).\""
5030 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
5031 #: freeculture.xml:3807
5035 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5036 #: freeculture.xml:3804
5038 "Jane Black, \"Big Music's Broken Record,\" BusinessWeek online, 13 February "
5039 "2003, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
5040 "#17</ulink>. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
5043 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5044 #: freeculture.xml:3776
5046 "In 2002, the RIAA reported that CD sales had fallen by 8.9 percent, from 882 "
5047 "million to 803 million units; revenues fell 6.7 percent.<placeholder "
5048 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> This confirms a trend over the past few "
5049 "years. The RIAA blames Internet piracy for the trend, though there are many "
5050 "other causes that could account for this drop. SoundScan, for example, "
5051 "reports a more than 20 percent drop in the number of CDs released since "
5052 "1999. That no doubt accounts for some of the decrease in sales. Rising "
5053 "prices could account for at least some of the loss. \"From 1999 to 2001, the "
5054 "average price of a CD rose 7.2 percent, from $13.04 to $14.19.\"<placeholder "
5055 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> Competition from other forms of media could "
5056 "also account for some of the decline. As Jane Black of "
5057 "<citetitle>BusinessWeek</citetitle> notes, \"The soundtrack to the film "
5058 "<citetitle>High Fidelity</citetitle> has a list price of $18.98. You could "
5059 "get the whole movie [on DVD] for $19.99.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
5064 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5065 #: freeculture.xml:3822
5067 "But let's assume the RIAA is right, and all of the decline in CD sales is "
5068 "because of Internet sharing. Here's the rub: In the same period that the "
5069 "RIAA estimates that 803 million CDs were sold, the RIAA estimates that 2.1 "
5070 "billion CDs were downloaded for free. Thus, although 2.6 times the total "
5071 "number of CDs sold were downloaded for free, sales revenue fell by just 6.7 "
5075 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5076 #: freeculture.xml:3830
5078 "There are too many different things happening at the same time to explain "
5079 "these numbers definitively, but one conclusion is unavoidable: The recording "
5080 "industry constantly asks, \"What's the difference between downloading a song "
5081 "and stealing a CD?\"—but their own numbers reveal the difference. If I "
5082 "steal a CD, then there is one less CD to sell. Every taking is a lost "
5083 "sale. But on the basis of the numbers the RIAA provides, it is absolutely "
5084 "clear that the same is not true of downloads. If every download were a lost "
5085 "sale—if every use of Kazaa \"rob[bed] the author of [his] "
5086 "profit\"—then the industry would have suffered a 100 percent drop in "
5087 "sales last year, not a 7 percent drop. If 2.6 times the number of CDs sold "
5088 "were downloaded for free, and yet sales revenue dropped by just 6.7 percent, "
5089 "then there is a huge difference between \"downloading a song and stealing a "
5093 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5094 #: freeculture.xml:3845
5096 "These are the harms—alleged and perhaps exaggerated but, let's assume, "
5097 "real. What of the benefits? File sharing may impose costs on the recording "
5098 "industry. What value does it produce in addition to these costs?"
5102 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5103 #: freeculture.xml:3857
5105 "By one estimate, 75 percent of the music released by the major labels is no "
5106 "longer in print. See Online Entertainment and Copyright Law—Coming "
5107 "Soon to a Digital Device Near You: Hearing Before the Senate Committee on "
5108 "the Judiciary, 107th Cong., 1st sess. (3 April 2001) (prepared statement of "
5109 "the Future of Music Coalition), available at <ulink "
5110 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #18</ulink>."
5113 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5114 #: freeculture.xml:3851
5116 "One benefit is type C sharing—making available content that is "
5117 "technically still under copyright but is no longer commercially available. "
5118 "This is not a small category of content. There are millions of tracks that "
5119 "are no longer commercially available.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
5120 "id=\"0\"/> And while it's conceivable that some of this content is not "
5121 "available because the artist producing the content doesn't want it to be "
5122 "made available, the vast majority of it is unavailable solely because the "
5123 "publisher or the distributor has decided it no longer makes economic sense "
5124 "<emphasis>to the company</emphasis> to make it available."
5128 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5129 #: freeculture.xml:3877
5131 "While there are not good estimates of the number of used record stores in "
5132 "existence, in 2002, there were 7,198 used book dealers in the United States, "
5133 "an increase of 20 percent since 1993. See Book Hunter Press, <citetitle>The "
5134 "Quiet Revolution: The Expansion of the Used Book Market</citetitle> (2002), "
5135 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
5136 "#19</ulink>. Used records accounted for $260 million in sales in 2002. See "
5137 "National Association of Recording Merchandisers, \"2002 Annual Survey "
5138 "Results,\" available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
5142 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5143 #: freeculture.xml:3871
5145 "In real space—long before the Internet—the market had a simple "
5146 "response to this problem: used book and record stores. There are thousands "
5147 "of used book and used record stores in America today.<placeholder "
5148 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> These stores buy content from owners, then sell "
5149 "the content they buy. And under American copyright law, when they buy and "
5150 "sell this content, <emphasis>even if the content is still under "
5151 "copyright</emphasis>, the copyright owner doesn't get a dime. Used book and "
5152 "record stores are commercial entities; their owners make money from the "
5153 "content they sell; but as with cable companies before statutory licensing, "
5154 "they don't have to pay the copyright owner for the content they sell."
5157 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
5158 #: freeculture.xml:3897
5159 msgid "Bernstein, Leonard"
5162 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5163 #: freeculture.xml:3899
5165 "Type C sharing, then, is very much like used book stores or used record "
5166 "stores. It is different, of course, because the person making the content "
5167 "available isn't making money from making the content available. It is also "
5168 "different, of course, because in real space, when I sell a record, I don't "
5169 "have it anymore, while in cyberspace, when someone shares my 1949 recording "
5170 "of Bernstein's \"Two Love Songs,\" I still have it. That difference would "
5171 "matter economically if the owner of the copyright were selling the record in "
5172 "competition to my sharing. But we're talking about the class of content that "
5173 "is not currently commercially available. The Internet is making it "
5174 "available, through cooperative sharing, without competing with the market."
5177 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5178 #: freeculture.xml:3912
5180 "It may well be, all things considered, that it would be better if the "
5181 "copyright owner got something from this trade. But just because it may well "
5182 "be better, it doesn't follow that it would be good to ban used book "
5183 "stores. Or put differently, if you think that type C sharing should be "
5184 "stopped, do you think that libraries and used book stores should be shut as "
5189 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5190 #: freeculture.xml:3920
5192 "Finally, and perhaps most importantly, file-sharing networks enable type D "
5193 "sharing to occur—the sharing of content that copyright owners want to "
5194 "have shared or for which there is no continuing copyright. This sharing "
5195 "clearly benefits authors and society. Science fiction author Cory Doctorow, "
5196 "for example, released his first novel, <citetitle>Down and Out in the Magic "
5197 "Kingdom</citetitle>, both free on-line and in bookstores on the same "
5198 "day. His (and his publisher's) thinking was that the on-line distribution "
5199 "would be a great advertisement for the \"real\" book. People would read part "
5200 "on-line, and then decide whether they liked the book or not. If they liked "
5201 "it, they would be more likely to buy it. Doctorow's content is type D "
5202 "content. If sharing networks enable his work to be spread, then both he and "
5203 "society are better off. (Actually, much better off: It is a great book!)"
5206 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5207 #: freeculture.xml:3937
5209 "Likewise for work in the public domain: This sharing benefits society with "
5210 "no legal harm to authors at all. If efforts to solve the problem of type A "
5211 "sharing destroy the opportunity for type D sharing, then we lose something "
5212 "important in order to protect type A content."
5215 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5216 #: freeculture.xml:3943
5218 "The point throughout is this: While the recording industry understandably "
5219 "says, \"This is how much we've lost,\" we must also ask, \"How much has "
5220 "society gained from p2p sharing? What are the efficiencies? What is the "
5221 "content that otherwise would be unavailable?\""
5224 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5225 #: freeculture.xml:3950
5227 "For unlike the piracy I described in the first section of this chapter, much "
5228 "of the \"piracy\" that file sharing enables is plainly legal and good. And "
5229 "like the piracy I described in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: "
5230 "labelnumber\" linkend=\"pirates\"/>, much of this piracy is motivated by a "
5231 "new way of spreading content caused by changes in the technology of "
5232 "distribution. Thus, consistent with the tradition that gave us Hollywood, "
5233 "radio, the recording industry, and cable TV, the question we should be "
5234 "asking about file sharing is how best to preserve its benefits while "
5235 "minimizing (to the extent possible) the wrongful harm it causes artists. The "
5236 "question is one of balance. The law should seek that balance, and that "
5237 "balance will be found only with time."
5240 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5241 #: freeculture.xml:3964
5243 "\"But isn't the war just a war against illegal sharing? Isn't the target "
5244 "just what you call type A sharing?\""
5248 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5249 #: freeculture.xml:3981
5251 "See Transcript of Proceedings, In Re: Napster Copyright Litigation at 34- 35 "
5252 "(N.D. Cal., 11 July 2001), nos. MDL-00-1369 MHP, C 99-5183 MHP, available at "
5253 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #21</ulink>. For an "
5254 "account of the litigation and its toll on Napster, see Joseph Menn, "
5255 "<citetitle>All the Rave: The Rise and Fall of Shawn Fanning's "
5256 "Napster</citetitle> (New York: Crown Business, 2003), 269–82."
5259 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5260 #: freeculture.xml:3968
5262 "You would think. And we should hope. But so far, it is not. The effect of "
5263 "the war purportedly on type A sharing alone has been felt far beyond that "
5264 "one class of sharing. That much is obvious from the Napster case "
5265 "itself. When Napster told the district court that it had developed a "
5266 "technology to block the transfer of 99.4 percent of identified infringing "
5267 "material, the district court told counsel for Napster 99.4 percent was not "
5268 "good enough. Napster had to push the infringements \"down to "
5269 "zero.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
5272 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5273 #: freeculture.xml:3992
5275 "If 99.4 percent is not good enough, then this is a war on file-sharing "
5276 "technologies, not a war on copyright infringement. There is no way to assure "
5277 "that a p2p system is used 100 percent of the time in compliance with the "
5278 "law, any more than there is a way to assure that 100 percent of VCRs or 100 "
5279 "percent of Xerox machines or 100 percent of handguns are used in compliance "
5280 "with the law. Zero tolerance means zero p2p. The court's ruling means that "
5281 "we as a society must lose the benefits of p2p, even for the totally legal "
5282 "and beneficial uses they serve, simply to assure that there are zero "
5283 "copyright infringements caused by p2p."
5286 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5287 #: freeculture.xml:4003
5289 "Zero tolerance has not been our history. It has not produced the content "
5290 "industry that we know today. The history of American law has been a process "
5291 "of balance. As new technologies changed the way content was distributed, the "
5292 "law adjusted, after some time, to the new technology. In this adjustment, "
5293 "the law sought to ensure the legitimate rights of creators while protecting "
5294 "innovation. Sometimes this has meant more rights for creators. Sometimes "
5298 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5299 #: freeculture.xml:4012
5301 "So, as we've seen, when \"mechanical reproduction\" threatened the interests "
5302 "of composers, Congress balanced the rights of composers against the "
5303 "interests of the recording industry. It granted rights to composers, but "
5304 "also to the recording artists: Composers were to be paid, but at a price set "
5305 "by Congress. But when radio started broadcasting the recordings made by "
5306 "these recording artists, and they complained to Congress that their "
5307 "\"creative property\" was not being respected (since the radio station did "
5308 "not have to pay them for the creativity it broadcast), Congress rejected "
5309 "their claim. An indirect benefit was enough."
5312 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5313 #: freeculture.xml:4024
5315 "Cable TV followed the pattern of record albums. When the courts rejected the "
5316 "claim that cable broadcasters had to pay for the content they rebroadcast, "
5317 "Congress responded by giving broadcasters a right to compensation, but at a "
5318 "level set by the law. It likewise gave cable companies the right to the "
5319 "content, so long as they paid the statutory price."
5323 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5324 #: freeculture.xml:4034
5326 "This compromise, like the compromise affecting records and player pianos, "
5327 "served two important goals—indeed, the two central goals of any "
5328 "copyright legislation. First, the law assured that new innovators would have "
5329 "the freedom to develop new ways to deliver content. Second, the law assured "
5330 "that copyright holders would be paid for the content that was "
5331 "distributed. One fear was that if Congress simply required cable TV to pay "
5332 "copyright holders whatever they demanded for their content, then copyright "
5333 "holders associated with broadcasters would use their power to stifle this "
5334 "new technology, cable. But if Congress had permitted cable to use "
5335 "broadcasters' content for free, then it would have unfairly subsidized "
5336 "cable. Thus Congress chose a path that would assure "
5337 "<emphasis>compensation</emphasis> without giving the past (broadcasters) "
5338 "control over the future (cable)."
5341 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
5342 #: freeculture.xml:4049
5346 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5347 #: freeculture.xml:4051
5349 "In the same year that Congress struck this balance, two major producers and "
5350 "distributors of film content filed a lawsuit against another technology, the "
5351 "video tape recorder (VTR, or as we refer to them today, VCRs) that Sony had "
5352 "produced, the Betamax. Disney's and Universal's claim against Sony was "
5353 "relatively simple: Sony produced a device, Disney and Universal claimed, "
5354 "that enabled consumers to engage in copyright infringement. Because the "
5355 "device that Sony built had a \"record\" button, the device could be used to "
5356 "record copyrighted movies and shows. Sony was therefore benefiting from the "
5357 "copyright infringement of its customers. It should therefore, Disney and "
5358 "Universal claimed, be partially liable for that infringement."
5362 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5363 #: freeculture.xml:4064
5365 "There was something to Disney's and Universal's claim. Sony did decide to "
5366 "design its machine to make it very simple to record television shows. It "
5367 "could have built the machine to block or inhibit any direct copying from a "
5368 "television broadcast. Or possibly, it could have built the machine to copy "
5369 "only if there were a special \"copy me\" signal on the line. It was clear "
5370 "that there were many television shows that did not grant anyone permission "
5371 "to copy. Indeed, if anyone had asked, no doubt the majority of shows would "
5372 "not have authorized copying. And in the face of this obvious preference, "
5373 "Sony could have designed its system to minimize the opportunity for "
5374 "copyright infringement. It did not, and for that, Disney and Universal "
5375 "wanted to hold it responsible for the architecture it chose."
5379 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5380 #: freeculture.xml:4086
5382 "Copyright Infringements (Audio and Video Recorders): Hearing on S. 1758 "
5383 "Before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, 97th Cong., 1st and 2nd sess., "
5384 "459 (1982) (testimony of Jack Valenti, president, Motion Picture Association "
5385 "of America, Inc.)."
5389 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5390 #: freeculture.xml:4098
5391 msgid "Copyright Infringements (Audio and Video Recorders), 475."
5395 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5396 #: freeculture.xml:4103
5398 "<citetitle>Universal City Studios, Inc</citetitle>. v. <citetitle>Sony "
5399 "Corp. of America</citetitle>, 480 F. Supp. 429, (C.D. Cal., 1979)."
5403 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5404 #: freeculture.xml:4114
5406 "Copyright Infringements (Audio and Video Recorders), 485 (testimony of Jack "
5410 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5411 #: freeculture.xml:4079
5413 "MPAA president Jack Valenti became the studios' most vocal champion. Valenti "
5414 "called VCRs \"tapeworms.\" He warned, \"When there are 20, 30, 40 million of "
5415 "these VCRs in the land, we will be invaded by millions of `tapeworms,' "
5416 "eating away at the very heart and essence of the most precious asset the "
5417 "copyright owner has, his copyright.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
5418 "id=\"0\"/> \"One does not have to be trained in sophisticated marketing and "
5419 "creative judgment,\" he told Congress, \"to understand the devastation on "
5420 "the after-theater marketplace caused by the hundreds of millions of tapings "
5421 "that will adversely impact on the future of the creative community in this "
5422 "country. It is simply a question of basic economics and plain common "
5423 "sense.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> Indeed, as surveys would "
5424 "later show, percent of VCR owners had movie libraries of ten videos or "
5425 "more<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/> — a use the Court would "
5426 "later hold was not \"fair.\" By \"allowing VCR owners to copy freely by the "
5427 "means of an exemption from copyright infringementwithout creating a "
5428 "mechanism to compensate copyrightowners,\" Valenti testified, Congress would "
5429 "\"take from the owners the very essence of their property: the exclusive "
5430 "right to control who may use their work, that is, who may copy it and "
5431 "thereby profit from its reproduction.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
5436 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5437 #: freeculture.xml:4131
5439 "<citetitle>Universal City Studios, Inc</citetitle>. v. <citetitle>Sony "
5440 "Corp. of America</citetitle>, 659 F. 2d 963 (9th Cir. 1981)."
5443 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
5444 #: freeculture.xml:4134
5445 msgid "Kozinski, Alex"
5448 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5449 #: freeculture.xml:4119
5451 "It took eight years for this case to be resolved by the Supreme Court. In "
5452 "the interim, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes Hollywood in "
5453 "its jurisdiction—leading Judge Alex Kozinski, who sits on that court, "
5454 "refers to it as the \"Hollywood Circuit\"—held that Sony would be "
5455 "liable for the copyright infringement made possible by its machines. Under "
5456 "the Ninth Circuit's rule, this totally familiar technology—which Jack "
5457 "Valenti had called \"the Boston Strangler of the American film industry\" "
5458 "(worse yet, it was a <emphasis>Japanese</emphasis> Boston Strangler of the "
5459 "American film industry)—was an illegal technology.<placeholder "
5460 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
5464 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5465 #: freeculture.xml:4137
5467 "But the Supreme Court reversed the decision of the Ninth Circuit. And in "
5468 "its reversal, the Court clearly articulated its understanding of when and "
5469 "whether courts should intervene in such disputes. As the Court wrote,"
5473 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
5474 #: freeculture.xml:4156
5476 "<citetitle>Sony Corp. of America</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Universal City "
5477 "Studios, Inc</citetitle>., 464 U.S. 417, 431 (1984)."
5480 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
5481 #: freeculture.xml:4146
5483 "Sound policy, as well as history, supports our consistent deference to "
5484 "Congress when major technological innovations alter the market for "
5485 "copyrighted materials. Congress has the constitutional authority and the "
5486 "institutional ability to accommodate fully the varied permutations of "
5487 "competing interests that are inevitably implicated by such new "
5488 "technology.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
5491 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5492 #: freeculture.xml:4161
5494 "Congress was asked to respond to the Supreme Court's decision. But as with "
5495 "the plea of recording artists about radio broadcasts, Congress ignored the "
5496 "request. Congress was convinced that American film got enough, this "
5497 "\"taking\" notwithstanding. If we put these cases together, a pattern is "
5501 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><title>
5502 #: freeculture.xml:4169
5503 msgid "Pattern of Court and Congress response"
5506 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
5507 #: freeculture.xml:4173
5511 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
5512 #: freeculture.xml:4174
5513 msgid "WHOSE VALUE WAS \"PIRATED\""
5516 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
5517 #: freeculture.xml:4175
5518 msgid "RESPONSE OF THE COURTS"
5521 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
5522 #: freeculture.xml:4176
5523 msgid "RESPONSE OF CONGRESS"
5526 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
5527 #: freeculture.xml:4181
5531 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
5532 #: freeculture.xml:4182
5536 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
5537 #: freeculture.xml:4183 freeculture.xml:4195 freeculture.xml:4201
5538 msgid "No protection"
5541 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
5542 #: freeculture.xml:4184 freeculture.xml:4196
5543 msgid "Statutory license"
5546 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
5547 #: freeculture.xml:4188
5548 msgid "Recording artists"
5551 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
5552 #: freeculture.xml:4189
5556 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
5557 #: freeculture.xml:4190 freeculture.xml:4202
5561 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
5562 #: freeculture.xml:4194
5563 msgid "Broadcasters"
5566 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
5567 #: freeculture.xml:4199
5571 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
5572 #: freeculture.xml:4200
5573 msgid "Film creators"
5576 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5577 #: freeculture.xml:4212
5579 "These are the most important instances in our history, but there are other "
5580 "cases as well. The technology of digital audio tape (DAT), for example, was "
5581 "regulated by Congress to minimize the risk of piracy. The remedy Congress "
5582 "imposed did burden DAT producers, by taxing tape sales and controlling the "
5583 "technology of DAT. See Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 (Title 17 of the "
5584 "<citetitle>United States Code</citetitle>), Pub. L. No. 102-563, 106 Stat. "
5585 "4237, codified at 17 U.S.C. §1001. Again, however, this regulation did not "
5586 "eliminate the opportunity for free riding in the sense I've described. See "
5587 "Lessig, <citetitle>Future</citetitle>, 71. See also Picker, \"From Edison to "
5588 "the Broadcast Flag,\" <citetitle>University of Chicago Law "
5589 "Review</citetitle> 70 (2003): 293–96. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
5593 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5594 #: freeculture.xml:4209
5596 "In each case throughout our history, a new technology changed the way "
5597 "content was distributed.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> In each "
5598 "case, throughout our history, that change meant that someone got a \"free "
5599 "ride\" on someone else's work."
5603 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5604 #: freeculture.xml:4229
5606 "In <emphasis>none</emphasis> of these cases did either the courts or "
5607 "Congress eliminate all free riding. In <emphasis>none</emphasis> of these "
5608 "cases did the courts or Congress insist that the law should assure that the "
5609 "copyright holder get all the value that his copyright created. In every "
5610 "case, the copyright owners complained of \"piracy.\" In every case, Congress "
5611 "acted to recognize some of the legitimacy in the behavior of the "
5612 "\"pirates.\" In each case, Congress allowed some new technology to benefit "
5613 "from content made before. It balanced the interests at stake."
5616 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5617 #: freeculture.xml:4241
5619 "When you think across these examples, and the other examples that make up "
5620 "the first four chapters of this section, this balance makes sense. Was Walt "
5621 "Disney a pirate? Would doujinshi be better if creators had to ask "
5622 "permission? Should tools that enable others to capture and spread images as "
5623 "a way to cultivate or criticize our culture be better regulated? Is it "
5624 "really right that building a search engine should expose you to $15 million "
5625 "in damages? Would it have been better if Edison had controlled film? Should "
5626 "every cover band have to hire a lawyer to get permission to record a song?"
5630 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5631 #: freeculture.xml:4258
5633 "<citetitle>Sony Corp. of America</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Universal City "
5634 "Studios, Inc</citetitle>., 464 U.S. 417, (1984)."
5637 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5638 #: freeculture.xml:4253
5640 "We could answer yes to each of these questions, but our tradition has "
5641 "answered no. In our tradition, as the Supreme Court has stated, copyright "
5642 "\"has never accorded the copyright owner complete control over all possible "
5643 "uses of his work.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Instead, the "
5644 "particular uses that the law regulates have been defined by balancing the "
5645 "good that comes from granting an exclusive right against the burdens such an "
5646 "exclusive right creates. And this balancing has historically been done "
5647 "<emphasis>after</emphasis> a technology has matured, or settled into the mix "
5648 "of technologies that facilitate the distribution of content."
5651 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5652 #: freeculture.xml:4269
5654 "We should be doing the same thing today. The technology of the Internet is "
5655 "changing quickly. The way people connect to the Internet (wires "
5656 "vs. wireless) is changing very quickly. No doubt the network should not "
5657 "become a tool for \"stealing\" from artists. But neither should the law "
5658 "become a tool to entrench one particular way in which artists (or more "
5659 "accurately, distributors) get paid. As I describe in some detail in the last "
5660 "chapter of this book, we should be securing income to artists while we allow "
5661 "the market to secure the most efficient way to promote and distribute "
5662 "content. This will require changes in the law, at least in the "
5663 "interim. These changes should be designed to balance the protection of the "
5664 "law against the strong public interest that innovation continue."
5668 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5669 #: freeculture.xml:4293
5671 "John Schwartz, \"New Economy: The Attack on Peer-to-Peer Software Echoes "
5672 "Past Efforts,\" <citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 22 September 2003, "
5676 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5677 #: freeculture.xml:4285
5679 "This is especially true when a new technology enables a vastly superior mode "
5680 "of distribution. And this p2p has done. P2p technologies can be ideally "
5681 "efficient in moving content across a widely diverse network. Left to "
5682 "develop, they could make the network vastly more efficient. Yet these "
5683 "\"potential public benefits,\" as John Schwartz writes in <citetitle>The New "
5684 "York Times</citetitle>, \"could be delayed in the P2P fight.\"<placeholder "
5685 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Yet when anyone begins to talk about "
5686 "\"balance,\" the copyright warriors raise a different argument. \"All this "
5687 "hand waving about balance and incentives,\" they say, \"misses a fundamental "
5688 "point. Our content,\" the warriors insist, \"is our "
5689 "<emphasis>property</emphasis>. Why should we wait for Congress to "
5690 "`rebalance' our property rights? Do you have to wait before calling the "
5691 "police when your car has been stolen? And why should Congress deliberate at "
5692 "all about the merits of this theft? Do we ask whether the car thief had a "
5693 "good use for the car before we arrest him?\""
5696 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5697 #: freeculture.xml:4307
5699 "\"It is <emphasis>our property</emphasis>,\" the warriors insist. \"And it "
5700 "should be protected just as any other property is protected.\""
5703 #. type: Content of: <book><part><title>
5704 #: freeculture.xml:4315
5705 msgid "\"PROPERTY\""
5709 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
5710 #: freeculture.xml:4320
5712 "The copyright warriors are right: A copyright is a kind of property. It can "
5713 "be owned and sold, and the law protects against its theft. Ordinarily, the "
5714 "copyright owner gets to hold out for any price he wants. Markets reckon the "
5715 "supply and demand that partially determine the price she can get."
5718 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
5719 #: freeculture.xml:4327
5721 "But in ordinary language, to call a copyright a \"property\" right is a bit "
5722 "misleading, for the property of copyright is an odd kind of property. "
5723 "Indeed, the very idea of property in any idea or any expression is very "
5724 "odd. I understand what I am taking when I take the picnic table you put in "
5725 "your backyard. I am taking a thing, the picnic table, and after I take it, "
5726 "you don't have it. But what am I taking when I take the good "
5727 "<emphasis>idea</emphasis> you had to put a picnic table in the "
5728 "backyard—by, for example, going to Sears, buying a table, and putting "
5729 "it in my backyard? What is the thing I am taking then?"
5733 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para>
5734 #: freeculture.xml:4352
5736 "Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Isaac McPherson (13 August 1813) in "
5737 "<citetitle>The Writings of Thomas Jefferson</citetitle>, vol. 6 (Andrew "
5738 "A. Lipscomb and Albert Ellery Bergh, eds., 1903), 330, 333–34."
5741 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
5742 #: freeculture.xml:4339
5744 "The point is not just about the thingness of picnic tables versus ideas, "
5745 "though that's an important difference. The point instead is that in the "
5746 "ordinary case—indeed, in practically every case except for a narrow "
5747 "range of exceptions—ideas released to the world are free. I don't take "
5748 "anything from you when I copy the way you dress—though I might seem "
5749 "weird if I did it every day, and especially weird if you are a "
5750 "woman. Instead, as Thomas Jefferson said (and as is especially true when I "
5751 "copy the way someone else dresses), \"He who receives an idea from me, "
5752 "receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his "
5753 "taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.\"<placeholder "
5754 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
5757 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
5758 #: freeculture.xml:4358
5760 "The exceptions to free use are ideas and expressions within the reach of the "
5761 "law of patent and copyright, and a few other domains that I won't discuss "
5762 "here. Here the law says you can't take my idea or expression without my "
5763 "permission: The law turns the intangible into property."
5767 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para>
5768 #: freeculture.xml:4371
5770 "As the legal realists taught American law, all property rights are "
5771 "intangible. A property right is simply a right that an individual has "
5772 "against the world to do or not do certain things that may or may not attach "
5773 "to a physical object. The right itself is intangible, even if the object to "
5774 "which it is (metaphorically) attached is tangible. See Adam Mossoff, \"What "
5775 "Is Property? Putting the Pieces Back Together,\" <citetitle>Arizona Law "
5776 "Review</citetitle> 45 (2003): 373, 429 n. 241."
5779 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
5780 #: freeculture.xml:4366
5782 "But how, and to what extent, and in what form—the details, in other "
5783 "words—matter. To get a good sense of how this practice of turning the "
5784 "intangible into property emerged, we need to place this \"property\" in its "
5785 "proper context.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
5788 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
5789 #: freeculture.xml:4381
5791 "My strategy in doing this will be the same as my strategy in the preceding "
5792 "part. I offer four stories to help put the idea of \"copyright material is "
5793 "property\" in context. Where did the idea come from? What are its limits? "
5794 "How does it function in practice? After these stories, the significance of "
5795 "this true statement—\"copyright material is property\"— will be "
5796 "a bit more clear, and its implications will be revealed as quite different "
5797 "from the implications that the copyright warriors would have us draw."
5800 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
5801 #: freeculture.xml:4394
5802 msgid "CHAPTER SIX: Founders"
5805 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
5806 #: freeculture.xml:4396
5808 "William Shakespeare wrote <citetitle>Romeo and Juliet</citetitle> in "
5809 "1595. The play was first published in 1597. It was the eleventh major play "
5810 "that Shakespeare had written. He would continue to write plays through 1613, "
5811 "and the plays that he wrote have continued to define Anglo-American culture "
5812 "ever since. So deeply have the works of a sixteenth-century writer seeped "
5813 "into our culture that we often don't even recognize their source. I once "
5814 "overheard someone commenting on Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of Henry V: \"I "
5815 "liked it, but Shakespeare is so full of clichés.\""
5819 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
5820 #: freeculture.xml:4411
5822 "Jacob Tonson is typically remembered for his associations with prominent "
5823 "eighteenth-century literary figures, especially John Dryden, and for his "
5824 "handsome \"definitive editions\" of classic works. In addition to "
5825 "<citetitle>Romeo and Juliet</citetitle>, he published an astonishing array "
5826 "of works that still remain at the heart of the English canon, including "
5827 "collected works of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, John Milton, and John "
5828 "Dryden. See Keith Walker, \"Jacob Tonson, Bookseller,\" <citetitle>American "
5829 "Scholar</citetitle> 61:3 (1992): 424–31."
5833 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
5834 #: freeculture.xml:4422
5836 "Lyman Ray Patterson, <citetitle>Copyright in Historical "
5837 "Perspective</citetitle> (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1968), "
5842 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
5843 #: freeculture.xml:4407
5845 "In 1774, almost 180 years after <citetitle>Romeo and Juliet</citetitle> was "
5846 "written, the \"copy-right\" for the work was still thought by many to be the "
5847 "exclusive right of a single London publisher, Jacob Tonson.<placeholder "
5848 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Tonson was the most prominent of a small group "
5849 "of publishers called the Conger<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> who "
5850 "controlled bookselling in England during the eighteenth century. The Conger "
5851 "claimed a perpetual right to control the \"copy\" of books that they had "
5852 "acquired from authors. That perpetual right meant that no one else could "
5853 "publish copies of a book to which they held the copyright. Prices of the "
5854 "classics were thus kept high; competition to produce better or cheaper "
5855 "editions was eliminated."
5858 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
5859 #: freeculture.xml:4444
5861 "As Siva Vaidhyanathan nicely argues, it is erroneous to call this a "
5862 "\"copyright law.\" See Vaidhyanathan, <citetitle>Copyrights and "
5863 "Copywrongs</citetitle>, 40. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
5866 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
5867 #: freeculture.xml:4435
5869 "Now, there's something puzzling about the year 1774 to anyone who knows a "
5870 "little about copyright law. The better-known year in the history of "
5871 "copyright is 1710, the year that the British Parliament adopted the first "
5872 "\"copyright\" act. Known as the Statute of Anne, the act stated that all "
5873 "published works would get a copyright term of fourteen years, renewable once "
5874 "if the author was alive, and that all works already published by 1710 would "
5875 "get a single term of twenty-one additional years.<placeholder "
5876 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Under this law, <citetitle>Romeo and "
5877 "Juliet</citetitle> should have been free in 1731. So why was there any issue "
5878 "about it still being under Tonson's control in 1774?"
5881 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
5882 #: freeculture.xml:4461
5883 msgid "Licensing Act (1662)"
5886 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
5887 #: freeculture.xml:4452
5889 "The reason is that the English hadn't yet agreed on what a \"copyright\" "
5890 "was—indeed, no one had. At the time the English passed the Statute of "
5891 "Anne, there was no other legislation governing copyrights. The last law "
5892 "regulating publishers, the Licensing Act of 1662, had expired in 1695. That "
5893 "law gave publishers a monopoly over publishing, as a way to make it easier "
5894 "for the Crown to control what was published. But after it expired, there "
5895 "was no positive law that said that the publishers, or \"Stationers,\" had an "
5896 "exclusive right to print books. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
5899 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
5900 #: freeculture.xml:4464
5902 "There was no <emphasis>positive</emphasis> law, but that didn't mean that "
5903 "there was no law. The Anglo-American legal tradition looks to both the words "
5904 "of legislatures and the words of judges to know the rules that are to govern "
5905 "how people are to behave. We call the words from legislatures \"positive "
5906 "law.\" We call the words from judges \"common law.\" The common law sets the "
5907 "background against which legislatures legislate; the legislature, "
5908 "ordinarily, can trump that background only if it passes a law to displace "
5909 "it. And so the real question after the licensing statutes had expired was "
5910 "whether the common law protected a copyright, independent of any positive "
5915 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
5916 #: freeculture.xml:4476
5918 "This question was important to the publishers, or \"booksellers,\" as they "
5919 "were called, because there was growing competition from foreign "
5920 "publishers. The Scottish, in particular, were increasingly publishing and "
5921 "exporting books to England. That competition reduced the profits of the "
5922 "Conger, which reacted by demanding that Parliament pass a law to again give "
5923 "them exclusive control over publishing. That demand ultimately resulted in "
5924 "the Statute of Anne."
5927 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
5928 #: freeculture.xml:4488
5930 "The Statute of Anne granted the author or \"proprietor\" of a book an "
5931 "exclusive right to print that book. In an important limitation, however, and "
5932 "to the horror of the booksellers, the law gave the bookseller that right for "
5933 "a limited term. At the end of that term, the copyright \"expired,\" and the "
5934 "work would then be free and could be published by anyone. Or so the "
5935 "legislature is thought to have believed."
5938 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
5939 #: freeculture.xml:4497
5941 "Now, the thing to puzzle about for a moment is this: Why would Parliament "
5942 "limit the exclusive right? Not why would they limit it to the particular "
5943 "limit they set, but why would they limit the right <emphasis>at "
5947 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
5948 #: freeculture.xml:4503
5950 "For the booksellers, and the authors whom they represented, had a very "
5951 "strong claim. Take <citetitle>Romeo and Juliet</citetitle> as an example: "
5952 "That play was written by Shakespeare. It was his genius that brought it into "
5953 "the world. He didn't take anybody's property when he created this play "
5954 "(that's a controversial claim, but never mind), and by his creating this "
5955 "play, he didn't make it any harder for others to craft a play. So why is it "
5956 "that the law would ever allow someone else to come along and take "
5957 "Shakespeare's play without his, or his estate's, permission? What reason is "
5958 "there to allow someone else to \"steal\" Shakespeare's work?"
5961 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
5962 #: freeculture.xml:4514
5964 "The answer comes in two parts. We first need to see something special about "
5965 "the notion of \"copyright\" that existed at the time of the Statute of "
5966 "Anne. Second, we have to see something important about \"booksellers.\""
5970 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
5971 #: freeculture.xml:4520
5973 "First, about copyright. In the last three hundred years, we have come to "
5974 "apply the concept of \"copyright\" ever more broadly. But in 1710, it wasn't "
5975 "so much a concept as it was a very particular right. The copyright was born "
5976 "as a very specific set of restrictions: It forbade others from reprinting a "
5977 "book. In 1710, the \"copy-right\" was a right to use a particular machine to "
5978 "replicate a particular work. It did not go beyond that very narrow right. It "
5979 "did not control any more generally how a work could be "
5980 "<emphasis>used</emphasis>. Today the right includes a large collection of "
5981 "restrictions on the freedom of others: It grants the author the exclusive "
5982 "right to copy, the exclusive right to distribute, the exclusive right to "
5983 "perform, and so on."
5986 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
5987 #: freeculture.xml:4535
5989 "So, for example, even if the copyright to Shakespeare's works were "
5990 "perpetual, all that would have meant under the original meaning of the term "
5991 "was that no one could reprint Shakespeare's work without the permission of "
5992 "the Shakespeare estate. It would not have controlled anything, for example, "
5993 "about how the work could be performed, whether the work could be translated, "
5994 "or whether Kenneth Branagh would be allowed to make his films. The "
5995 "\"copy-right\" was only an exclusive right to print—no less, of "
5996 "course, but also no more."
5999 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6000 #: freeculture.xml:4547
6002 "Even that limited right was viewed with skepticism by the British. They had "
6003 "had a long and ugly experience with \"exclusive rights,\" especially "
6004 "\"exclusive rights\" granted by the Crown. The English had fought a civil "
6005 "war in part about the Crown's practice of handing out "
6006 "monopolies—especially monopolies for works that already existed. King "
6007 "Henry VIII granted a patent to print the Bible and a monopoly to Darcy to "
6008 "print playing cards. The English Parliament began to fight back against this "
6009 "power of the Crown. In 1656, it passed the Statute of Monopolies, limiting "
6010 "monopolies to patents for new inventions. And by 1710, Parliament was eager "
6011 "to deal with the growing monopoly in publishing."
6014 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6015 #: freeculture.xml:4563
6017 "Thus the \"copy-right,\" when viewed as a monopoly right, was naturally "
6018 "viewed as a right that should be limited. (However convincing the claim that "
6019 "\"it's my property, and I should have it forever,\" try sounding convincing "
6020 "when uttering, \"It's my monopoly, and I should have it forever.\") The "
6021 "state would protect the exclusive right, but only so long as it benefited "
6022 "society. The British saw the harms from specialinterest favors; they passed "
6023 "a law to stop them."
6027 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6028 #: freeculture.xml:4589
6030 "Philip Wittenberg, <citetitle>The Protection and Marketing of Literary "
6031 "Property</citetitle> (New York: J. Messner, Inc., 1937), 31."
6034 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6035 #: freeculture.xml:4574
6037 "Second, about booksellers. It wasn't just that the copyright was a "
6038 "monopoly. It was also that it was a monopoly held by the booksellers. "
6039 "Booksellers sound quaint and harmless to us. They were not viewed as "
6040 "harmless in seventeenth-century England. Members of the Conger were "
6041 "increasingly seen as monopolists of the worst kind—tools of the "
6042 "Crown's repression, selling the liberty of England to guarantee themselves a "
6043 "monopoly profit. The attacks against these monopolists were harsh: Milton "
6044 "described them as \"old patentees and monopolizers in the trade of "
6045 "book-selling\"; they were \"men who do not therefore labour in an honest "
6046 "profession to which learning is indetted.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
6050 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6051 #: freeculture.xml:4594
6053 "Many believed the power the booksellers exercised over the spread of "
6054 "knowledge was harming that spread, just at the time the Enlightenment was "
6055 "teaching the importance of education and knowledge spread generally. The "
6056 "idea that knowledge should be free was a hallmark of the time, and these "
6057 "powerful commercial interests were interfering with that idea."
6060 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6061 #: freeculture.xml:4602
6063 "To balance this power, Parliament decided to increase competition among "
6064 "booksellers, and the simplest way to do that was to spread the wealth of "
6065 "valuable books. Parliament therefore limited the term of copyrights, and "
6066 "thereby guaranteed that valuable books would become open to any publisher to "
6067 "publish after a limited time. Thus the setting of the term for existing "
6068 "works to just twenty-one years was a compromise to fight the power of the "
6069 "booksellers. The limitation on terms was an indirect way to assure "
6070 "competition among publishers, and thus the construction and spread of "
6074 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6075 #: freeculture.xml:4614
6077 "When 1731 (1710 + 21) came along, however, the booksellers were getting "
6078 "anxious. They saw the consequences of more competition, and like every "
6079 "competitor, they didn't like them. At first booksellers simply ignored the "
6080 "Statute of Anne, continuing to insist on the perpetual right to control "
6081 "publication. But in 1735 and 1737, they tried to persuade Parliament to "
6082 "extend their terms. Twenty-one years was not enough, they said; they needed "
6086 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6087 #: freeculture.xml:4623
6089 "Parliament rejected their requests. As one pamphleteer put it, in words that "
6094 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
6095 #: freeculture.xml:4638
6097 "A Letter to a Member of Parliament concerning the Bill now depending in the "
6098 "House of Commons, for making more effectual an Act in the Eighth Year of the "
6099 "Reign of Queen Anne, entitled, An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by "
6100 "Vesting the Copies of Printed Books in the Authors or Purchasers of such "
6101 "Copies, during the Times therein mentioned (London, 1735), in Brief Amici "
6102 "Curiae of Tyler T. Ochoa et al., 8, <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
6103 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, 537 U.S. 186 (2003) (No. 01-618)."
6106 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
6107 #: freeculture.xml:4628
6109 "I see no Reason for granting a further Term now, which will not hold as well "
6110 "for granting it again and again, as often as the Old ones Expire; so that "
6111 "should this Bill pass, it will in Effect be establishing a perpetual "
6112 "Monopoly, a Thing deservedly odious in the Eye of the Law; it will be a "
6113 "great Cramp to Trade, a Discouragement to Learning, no Benefit to the "
6114 "Authors, but a general Tax on the Publick; and all this only to increase the "
6115 "private Gain of the Booksellers.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
6118 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6119 #: freeculture.xml:4649
6121 "Having failed in Parliament, the publishers turned to the courts in a series "
6122 "of cases. Their argument was simple and direct: The Statute of Anne gave "
6123 "authors certain protections through positive law, but those protections were "
6124 "not intended as replacements for the common law. Instead, they were "
6125 "intended simply to supplement the common law. Under common law, it was "
6126 "already wrong to take another person's creative \"property\" and use it "
6127 "without his permission. The Statute of Anne, the booksellers argued, didn't "
6128 "change that. Therefore, just because the protections of the Statute of Anne "
6129 "expired, that didn't mean the protections of the common law expired: Under "
6130 "the common law they had the right to ban the publication of a book, even if "
6131 "its Statute of Anne copyright had expired. This, they argued, was the only "
6132 "way to protect authors."
6135 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6136 #: freeculture.xml:4670
6138 "Lyman Ray Patterson, \"Free Speech, Copyright, and Fair Use,\" "
6139 "<citetitle>Vanderbilt Law Review</citetitle> 40 (1987): 28. For a "
6140 "wonderfully compelling account, see Vaidhyanathan, 37–48. "
6141 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
6144 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6145 #: freeculture.xml:4664
6147 "This was a clever argument, and one that had the support of some of the "
6148 "leading jurists of the day. It also displayed extraordinary chutzpah. Until "
6149 "then, as law professor Raymond Patterson has put it, \"The publishers "
6150 "… had as much concern for authors as a cattle rancher has for "
6151 "cattle.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The bookseller didn't "
6152 "care squat for the rights of the author. His concern was the monopoly "
6153 "profit that the author's work gave."
6157 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6158 #: freeculture.xml:4683
6160 "For a compelling account, see David Saunders, <citetitle>Authorship and "
6161 "Copyright</citetitle> (London: Routledge, 1992), 62–69."
6164 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6165 #: freeculture.xml:4679
6167 "The booksellers' argument was not accepted without a fight. The hero of "
6168 "this fight was a Scottish bookseller named Alexander Donaldson.<placeholder "
6169 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
6173 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6174 #: freeculture.xml:4693
6176 "Mark Rose, <citetitle>Authors and Owners</citetitle> (Cambridge: Harvard "
6177 "University Press, 1993), 92."
6181 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6182 #: freeculture.xml:4703
6186 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
6187 #: freeculture.xml:4705
6188 msgid "Boswell, James"
6191 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
6192 #: freeculture.xml:4706
6193 msgid "Erskine, Andrew"
6196 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6197 #: freeculture.xml:4688
6199 "Donaldson was an outsider to the London Conger. He began his career in "
6200 "Edinburgh in 1750. The focus of his business was inexpensive reprints \"of "
6201 "standard works whose copyright term had expired,\" at least under the "
6202 "Statute of Anne.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Donaldson's "
6203 "publishing house prospered and became \"something of a center for literary "
6204 "Scotsmen.\" \"[A]mong them,\" Professor Mark Rose writes, was \"the young "
6205 "James Boswell who, together with his friend Andrew Erskine, published an "
6206 "anthology of contemporary Scottish poems with Donaldson.\"<placeholder "
6207 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> "
6208 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/>"
6212 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6213 #: freeculture.xml:4715
6215 "Lyman Ray Patterson, <citetitle>Copyright in Historical "
6216 "Perspective</citetitle>, 167 (quoting Borwell)."
6219 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6220 #: freeculture.xml:4709
6222 "When the London booksellers tried to shut down Donaldson's shop in Scotland, "
6223 "he responded by moving his shop to London, where he sold inexpensive "
6224 "editions \"of the most popular English books, in defiance of the supposed "
6225 "common law right of Literary Property.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
6226 "id=\"0\"/> His books undercut the Conger prices by 30 to 50 percent, and he "
6227 "rested his right to compete upon the ground that, under the Statute of Anne, "
6228 "the works he was selling had passed out of protection."
6231 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6232 #: freeculture.xml:4723
6234 "The London booksellers quickly brought suit to block \"piracy\" like "
6235 "Donaldson's. A number of actions were successful against the \"pirates,\" "
6236 "the most important early victory being <citetitle>Millar</citetitle> "
6237 "v. <citetitle>Taylor</citetitle>."
6241 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6242 #: freeculture.xml:4735
6244 "Howard B. Abrams, \"The Historic Foundation of American Copyright Law: "
6245 "Exploding the Myth of Common Law Copyright,\" <citetitle>Wayne Law "
6246 "Review</citetitle> 29 (1983): 1152."
6249 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6250 #: freeculture.xml:4728
6252 "Millar was a bookseller who in 1729 had purchased the rights to James "
6253 "Thomson's poem \"The Seasons.\" Millar complied with the requirements of the "
6254 "Statute of Anne, and therefore received the full protection of the "
6255 "statute. After the term of copyright ended, Robert Taylor began printing a "
6256 "competing volume. Millar sued, claiming a perpetual common law right, the "
6257 "Statute of Anne notwithstanding.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
6260 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6261 #: freeculture.xml:4744
6263 "Astonishingly to modern lawyers, one of the greatest judges in English "
6264 "history, Lord Mansfield, agreed with the booksellers. Whatever protection "
6265 "the Statute of Anne gave booksellers, it did not, he held, extinguish any "
6266 "common law right. The question was whether the common law would protect the "
6267 "author against subsequent \"pirates.\" Mansfield's answer was yes: The "
6268 "common law would bar Taylor from reprinting Thomson's poem without Millar's "
6269 "permission. That common law rule thus effectively gave the booksellers a "
6270 "perpetual right to control the publication of any book assigned to them."
6274 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6275 #: freeculture.xml:4755
6277 "Considered as a matter of abstract justice—reasoning as if justice "
6278 "were just a matter of logical deduction from first "
6279 "principles—Mansfield's conclusion might make some sense. But what it "
6280 "ignored was the larger issue that Parliament had struggled with in 1710: How "
6281 "best to limit the monopoly power of publishers? Parliament's strategy was to "
6282 "offer a term for existing works that was long enough to buy peace in 1710, "
6283 "but short enough to assure that culture would pass into competition within a "
6284 "reasonable period of time. Within twenty-one years, Parliament believed, "
6285 "Britain would mature from the controlled culture that the Crown coveted to "
6286 "the free culture that we inherited."
6289 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6290 #: freeculture.xml:4770
6292 "The fight to defend the limits of the Statute of Anne was not to end there, "
6293 "however, and it is here that Donaldson enters the mix."
6296 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6297 #: freeculture.xml:4773
6298 msgid "Beckett, Thomas"
6302 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6303 #: freeculture.xml:4779
6304 msgid "Ibid., 1156."
6307 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6308 #: freeculture.xml:4775
6310 "Millar died soon after his victory, so his case was not appealed. His estate "
6311 "sold Thomson's poems to a syndicate of printers that included Thomas "
6312 "Beckett.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Donaldson then released an "
6313 "unauthorized edition of Thomson's works. Beckett, on the strength of the "
6314 "decision in <citetitle>Millar</citetitle>, got an injunction against "
6315 "Donaldson. Donaldson appealed the case to the House of Lords, which "
6316 "functioned much like our own Supreme Court. In February of 1774, that body "
6317 "had the chance to interpret the meaning of Parliament's limits from sixty "
6321 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6322 #: freeculture.xml:4789
6324 "As few legal cases ever do, <citetitle>Donaldson</citetitle> "
6325 "v. <citetitle>Beckett</citetitle> drew an enormous amount of attention "
6326 "throughout Britain. Donaldson's lawyers argued that whatever rights may have "
6327 "existed under the common law, the Statute of Anne terminated those "
6328 "rights. After passage of the Statute of Anne, the only legal protection for "
6329 "an exclusive right to control publication came from that statute. Thus, they "
6330 "argued, after the term specified in the Statute of Anne expired, works that "
6331 "had been protected by the statute were no longer protected."
6334 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6335 #: freeculture.xml:4799
6337 "The House of Lords was an odd institution. Legal questions were presented to "
6338 "the House and voted upon first by the \"law lords,\" members of special "
6339 "legal distinction who functioned much like the Justices in our Supreme "
6340 "Court. Then, after the law lords voted, the House of Lords generally voted."
6344 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6345 #: freeculture.xml:4806
6347 "The reports about the law lords' votes are mixed. On some counts, it looks "
6348 "as if perpetual copyright prevailed. But there is no ambiguity about how the "
6349 "House of Lords voted as whole. By a two-to-one majority (22 to 11) they "
6350 "voted to reject the idea of perpetual copyrights. Whatever one's "
6351 "understanding of the common law, now a copyright was fixed for a limited "
6352 "time, after which the work protected by copyright passed into the public "
6356 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
6357 #: freeculture.xml:4824
6358 msgid "Bacon, Francis"
6361 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
6362 #: freeculture.xml:4825
6363 msgid "Bunyan, John"
6366 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
6367 #: freeculture.xml:4826
6368 msgid "Johnson, Samuel"
6371 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
6372 #: freeculture.xml:4827
6373 msgid "Milton, John"
6376 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
6377 #: freeculture.xml:4828
6378 msgid "Shakespeare, William"
6381 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6382 #: freeculture.xml:4816
6384 "\"The public domain.\" Before the case of <citetitle>Donaldson</citetitle> "
6385 "v. <citetitle>Beckett</citetitle>, there was no clear idea of a public "
6386 "domain in England. Before 1774, there was a strong argument that common law "
6387 "copyrights were perpetual. After 1774, the public domain was born. For the "
6388 "first time in Anglo-American history, the legal control over creative works "
6389 "expired, and the greatest works in English history—including those of "
6390 "Shakespeare, Bacon, Milton, Johnson, and Bunyan—were free of legal "
6391 "restraint. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
6392 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> "
6393 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
6398 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6399 #: freeculture.xml:4841
6403 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6404 #: freeculture.xml:4831
6406 "It is hard for us to imagine, but this decision by the House of Lords fueled "
6407 "an extraordinarily popular and political reaction. In Scotland, where most "
6408 "of the \"pirate publishers\" did their work, people celebrated the decision "
6409 "in the streets. As the <citetitle>Edinburgh Advertiser</citetitle> reported, "
6410 "\"No private cause has so much engrossed the attention of the public, and "
6411 "none has been tried before the House of Lords in the decision of which so "
6412 "many individuals were interested.\" \"Great rejoicing in Edinburgh upon "
6413 "victory over literary property: bonfires and illuminations.\"<placeholder "
6414 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
6417 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6418 #: freeculture.xml:4845
6420 "In London, however, at least among publishers, the reaction was equally "
6421 "strong in the opposite direction. The <citetitle>Morning "
6422 "Chronicle</citetitle> reported:"
6425 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
6426 #: freeculture.xml:4851
6428 "By the above decision … near 200,000 pounds worth of what was "
6429 "honestly purchased at public sale, and which was yesterday thought property "
6430 "is now reduced to nothing. The Booksellers of London and Westminster, many "
6431 "of whom sold estates and houses to purchase Copy-right, are in a manner "
6432 "ruined, and those who after many years industry thought they had acquired a "
6433 "competency to provide for their families now find themselves without a "
6434 "shilling to devise to their successors.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
6439 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6440 #: freeculture.xml:4866
6442 "\"Ruined\" is a bit of an exaggeration. But it is not an exaggeration to say "
6443 "that the change was profound. The decision of the House of Lords meant that "
6444 "the booksellers could no longer control how culture in England would grow "
6445 "and develop. Culture in England was thereafter <emphasis>free</emphasis>. "
6446 "Not in the sense that copyrights would not be respected, for of course, for "
6447 "a limited time after a work was published, the bookseller had an exclusive "
6448 "right to control the publication of that book. And not in the sense that "
6449 "books could be stolen, for even after a copyright expired, you still had to "
6450 "buy the book from someone. But <emphasis>free</emphasis> in the sense that "
6451 "the culture and its growth would no longer be controlled by a small group of "
6452 "publishers. As every free market does, this free market of free culture "
6453 "would grow as the consumers and producers chose. English culture would "
6454 "develop as the many English readers chose to let it develop— chose in "
6455 "the books they bought and wrote; chose in the memes they repeated and "
6456 "endorsed. Chose in a <emphasis>competitive context</emphasis>, not a context "
6457 "in which the choices about what culture is available to people and how they "
6458 "get access to it are made by the few despite the wishes of the many."
6461 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6462 #: freeculture.xml:4887
6464 "At least, this was the rule in a world where the Parliament is antimonopoly, "
6465 "resistant to the protectionist pleas of publishers. In a world where the "
6466 "Parliament is more pliant, free culture would be less protected."
6469 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
6470 #: freeculture.xml:4895
6471 msgid "CHAPTER SEVEN: Recorders"
6474 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6475 #: freeculture.xml:4897
6477 "Jon Else is a filmmaker. He is best known for his documentaries and has been "
6478 "very successful in spreading his art. He is also a teacher, and as a teacher "
6479 "myself, I envy the loyalty and admiration that his students feel for him. (I "
6480 "met, by accident, two of his students at a dinner party. He was their god.)"
6483 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6484 #: freeculture.xml:4904
6486 "Else worked on a documentary that I was involved in. At a break, he told me "
6487 "a story about the freedom to create with film in America today."
6490 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
6491 #: freeculture.xml:4915 freeculture.xml:4984
6492 msgid "San Francisco Opera"
6495 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6496 #: freeculture.xml:4909
6498 "In 1990, Else was working on a documentary about Wagner's Ring Cycle. The "
6499 "focus was stagehands at the San Francisco Opera. Stagehands are a "
6500 "particularly funny and colorful element of an opera. During a show, they "
6501 "hang out below the stage in the grips' lounge and in the lighting loft. They "
6502 "make a perfect contrast to the art on the stage. <placeholder "
6503 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
6507 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6508 #: freeculture.xml:4918
6510 "During one of the performances, Else was shooting some stagehands playing "
6511 "checkers. In one corner of the room was a television set. Playing on the "
6512 "television set, while the stagehands played checkers and the opera company "
6513 "played Wagner, was <citetitle>The Simpsons</citetitle>. As Else judged it, "
6514 "this touch of cartoon helped capture the flavor of what was special about "
6518 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6519 #: freeculture.xml:4927
6521 "Years later, when he finally got funding to complete the film, Else "
6522 "attempted to clear the rights for those few seconds of <citetitle>The "
6523 "Simpsons</citetitle>. For of course, those few seconds are copyrighted; and "
6524 "of course, to use copyrighted material you need the permission of the "
6525 "copyright owner, unless \"fair use\" or some other privilege applies."
6528 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
6529 #: freeculture.xml:4939 freeculture.xml:4947
6530 msgid "Gracie Films"
6533 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6534 #: freeculture.xml:4934
6536 "Else called <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> creator Matt Groening's office "
6537 "to get permission. Groening approved the shot. The shot was a "
6538 "four-and-a-halfsecond image on a tiny television set in the corner of the "
6539 "room. How could it hurt? Groening was happy to have it in the film, but he "
6540 "told Else to contact Gracie Films, the company that produces the program. "
6541 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
6544 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6545 #: freeculture.xml:4942
6547 "Gracie Films was okay with it, too, but they, like Groening, wanted to be "
6548 "careful. So they told Else to contact Fox, Gracie's parent company. Else "
6549 "called Fox and told them about the clip in the corner of the one room shot "
6550 "of the film. Matt Groening had already given permission, Else said. He was "
6551 "just confirming the permission with Fox. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
6555 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6556 #: freeculture.xml:4950
6558 "Then, as Else told me, \"two things happened. First we discovered … "
6559 "that Matt Groening doesn't own his own creation—or at least that "
6560 "someone [at Fox] believes he doesn't own his own creation.\" And second, Fox "
6561 "\"wanted ten thousand dollars as a licensing fee for us to use this "
6562 "four-point-five seconds of … entirely unsolicited "
6563 "<citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> which was in the corner of the shot.\""
6566 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6567 #: freeculture.xml:4958
6569 "Else was certain there was a mistake. He worked his way up to someone he "
6570 "thought was a vice president for licensing, Rebecca Herrera. He explained "
6571 "to her, \"There must be some mistake here. … We're asking for your "
6572 "educational rate on this.\" That was the educational rate, Herrera told "
6573 "Else. A day or so later, Else called again to confirm what he had been told."
6577 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6578 #: freeculture.xml:4966
6580 "\"I wanted to make sure I had my facts straight,\" he told me. \"Yes, you "
6581 "have your facts straight,\" she said. It would cost $10,000 to use the clip "
6582 "of <citetitle>The Simpsons</citetitle> in the corner of a shot in a "
6583 "documentary film about Wagner's Ring Cycle. And then, astonishingly, Herrera "
6584 "told Else, \"And if you quote me, I'll turn you over to our attorneys.\" As "
6585 "an assistant to Herrera told Else later on, \"They don't give a shit. They "
6586 "just want the money.\""
6589 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
6590 #: freeculture.xml:4985
6591 msgid "Day After Trinity, The"
6594 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6595 #: freeculture.xml:4978
6597 "Else didn't have the money to buy the right to replay what was playing on "
6598 "the television backstage at the San Francisco Opera. To reproduce this "
6599 "reality was beyond the documentary filmmaker's budget. At the very last "
6600 "minute before the film was to be released, Else digitally replaced the shot "
6601 "with a clip from another film that he had worked on, <citetitle>The Day "
6602 "After Trinity</citetitle>, from ten years before. <placeholder "
6603 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
6606 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6607 #: freeculture.xml:4988
6609 "There's no doubt that someone, whether Matt Groening or Fox, owns the "
6610 "copyright to <citetitle>The Simpsons</citetitle>. That copyright is their "
6611 "property. To use that copyrighted material thus sometimes requires the "
6612 "permission of the copyright owner. If the use that Else wanted to make of "
6613 "the <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> copyright were one of the uses "
6614 "restricted by the law, then he would need to get the permission of the "
6615 "copyright owner before he could use the work in that way. And in a free "
6616 "market, it is the owner of the copyright who gets to set the price for any "
6617 "use that the law says the owner gets to control."
6620 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6621 #: freeculture.xml:4999
6623 "For example, \"public performance\" is a use of <citetitle>The "
6624 "Simpsons</citetitle> that the copyright owner gets to control. If you take a "
6625 "selection of favorite episodes, rent a movie theater, and charge for tickets "
6626 "to come see \"My Favorite <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle>,\" then you need "
6627 "to get permission from the copyright owner. And the copyright owner "
6628 "(rightly, in my view) can charge whatever she wants—$10 or "
6629 "$1,000,000. That's her right, as set by the law."
6633 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6634 #: freeculture.xml:5011
6636 "For an excellent argument that such use is \"fair use,\" but that lawyers "
6637 "don't permit recognition that it is \"fair use,\" see Richard A. Posner with "
6638 "William F. Patry, \"Fair Use and Statutory Reform in the Wake of "
6639 "<citetitle>Eldred</citetitle>\" (draft on file with author), University of "
6640 "Chicago Law School, 5 August 2003."
6643 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6644 #: freeculture.xml:5008
6646 "But when lawyers hear this story about Jon Else and Fox, their first thought "
6647 "is \"fair use.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Else's use of just "
6648 "4.5 seconds of an indirect shot of a <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> episode "
6649 "is clearly a fair use of <citetitle>The Simpsons</citetitle>—and fair "
6650 "use does not require the permission of anyone."
6654 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6655 #: freeculture.xml:5023
6656 msgid "So I asked Else why he didn't just rely upon \"fair use.\" Here's his reply:"
6659 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
6660 #: freeculture.xml:5027
6662 "The <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> fiasco was for me a great lesson in the "
6663 "gulf between what lawyers find irrelevant in some abstract sense, and what "
6664 "is crushingly relevant in practice to those of us actually trying to make "
6665 "and broadcast documentaries. I never had any doubt that it was \"clearly "
6666 "fair use\" in an absolute legal sense. But I couldn't rely on the concept in "
6667 "any concrete way. Here's why:"
6671 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><para>
6672 #: freeculture.xml:5037
6674 "Before our films can be broadcast, the network requires that we buy Errors "
6675 "and Omissions insurance. The carriers require a detailed \"visual cue "
6676 "sheet\" listing the source and licensing status of each shot in the "
6677 "film. They take a dim view of \"fair use,\" and a claim of \"fair use\" can "
6678 "grind the application process to a halt."
6681 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><para><indexterm><primary>
6682 #: freeculture.xml:5054
6683 msgid "Lucas, George"
6686 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><para>
6687 #: freeculture.xml:5045
6689 "I probably never should have asked Matt Groening in the first place. But I "
6690 "knew (at least from folklore) that Fox had a history of tracking down and "
6691 "stopping unlicensed <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> usage, just as George "
6692 "Lucas had a very high profile litigating <citetitle>Star Wars</citetitle> "
6693 "usage. So I decided to play by the book, thinking that we would be granted "
6694 "free or cheap license to four seconds of <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle>. As "
6695 "a documentary producer working to exhaustion on a shoestring, the last thing "
6696 "I wanted was to risk legal trouble, even nuisance legal trouble, and even to "
6697 "defend a principle. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
6702 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><para>
6703 #: freeculture.xml:5058
6705 "I did, in fact, speak with one of your colleagues at Stanford Law School "
6706 "… who confirmed that it was fair use. He also confirmed that Fox "
6707 "would \"depose and litigate you to within an inch of your life,\" regardless "
6708 "of the merits of my claim. He made clear that it would boil down to who had "
6709 "the bigger legal department and the deeper pockets, me or them."
6713 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><para>
6714 #: freeculture.xml:5068
6716 "The question of fair use usually comes up at the end of the project, when we "
6717 "are up against a release deadline and out of money."
6720 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6721 #: freeculture.xml:5075
6723 "In theory, fair use means you need no permission. The theory therefore "
6724 "supports free culture and insulates against a permission culture. But in "
6725 "practice, fair use functions very differently. The fuzzy lines of the law, "
6726 "tied to the extraordinary liability if lines are crossed, means that the "
6727 "effective fair use for many types of creators is slight. The law has the "
6728 "right aim; practice has defeated the aim."
6731 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6732 #: freeculture.xml:5083
6734 "This practice shows just how far the law has come from its "
6735 "eighteenth-century roots. The law was born as a shield to protect "
6736 "publishers' profits against the unfair competition of a pirate. It has "
6737 "matured into a sword that interferes with any use, transformative or not."
6740 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
6741 #: freeculture.xml:5092
6742 msgid "CHAPTER EIGHT: Transformers"
6745 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6746 #: freeculture.xml:5093
6750 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
6751 #: freeculture.xml:5094 freeculture.xml:5102 freeculture.xml:5113 freeculture.xml:5128 freeculture.xml:5137 freeculture.xml:5142 freeculture.xml:5194 freeculture.xml:5210 freeculture.xml:5233 freeculture.xml:5296 freeculture.xml:9670
6755 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6756 #: freeculture.xml:5096
6758 "In 1993, Alex Alben was a lawyer working at Starwave, Inc. Starwave was an "
6759 "innovative company founded by Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen to develop "
6760 "digital entertainment. Long before the Internet became popular, Starwave "
6761 "began investing in new technology for delivering entertainment in "
6762 "anticipation of the power of networks."
6765 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6766 #: freeculture.xml:5104
6768 "Alben had a special interest in new technology. He was intrigued by the "
6769 "emerging market for CD-ROM technology—not to distribute film, but to "
6770 "do things with film that otherwise would be very difficult. In 1993, he "
6771 "launched an initiative to develop a product to build retrospectives on the "
6772 "work of particular actors. The first actor chosen was Clint Eastwood. The "
6773 "idea was to showcase all of the work of Eastwood, with clips from his films "
6774 "and interviews with figures important to his career."
6777 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6778 #: freeculture.xml:5115
6780 "At that time, Eastwood had made more than fifty films, as an actor and as a "
6781 "director. Alben began with a series of interviews with Eastwood, asking him "
6782 "about his career. Because Starwave produced those interviews, it was free to "
6783 "include them on the CD."
6787 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6788 #: freeculture.xml:5122
6790 "That alone would not have made a very interesting product, so Starwave "
6791 "wanted to add content from the movies in Eastwood's career: posters, "
6792 "scripts, and other material relating to the films Eastwood made. Most of his "
6793 "career was spent at Warner Brothers, and so it was relatively easy to get "
6794 "permission for that content."
6797 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6798 #: freeculture.xml:5130
6800 "Then Alben and his team decided to include actual film clips. \"Our goal was "
6801 "that we were going to have a clip from every one of Eastwood's films,\" "
6802 "Alben told me. It was here that the problem arose. \"No one had ever really "
6803 "done this before,\" Alben explained. \"No one had ever tried to do this in "
6804 "the context of an artistic look at an actor's career.\""
6807 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6808 #: freeculture.xml:5139
6810 "Alben brought the idea to Michael Slade, the CEO of Starwave. Slade asked, "
6811 "\"Well, what will it take?\""
6814 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
6815 #: freeculture.xml:5155
6819 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><secondary>
6820 #: freeculture.xml:5156
6821 msgid "publicity rights on images of"
6824 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6825 #: freeculture.xml:5150
6827 "Technically, the rights that Alben had to clear were mainly those of "
6828 "publicity—rights an artist has to control the commercial exploitation "
6829 "of his image. But these rights, too, burden \"Rip, Mix, Burn\" creativity, "
6830 "as this chapter evinces. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
6833 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6834 #: freeculture.xml:5144
6836 "Alben replied, \"Well, we're going to have to clear rights from everyone who "
6837 "appears in these films, and the music and everything else that we want to "
6838 "use in these film clips.\" Slade said, \"Great! Go for it.\"<placeholder "
6839 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
6842 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6843 #: freeculture.xml:5161
6845 "The problem was that neither Alben nor Slade had any idea what clearing "
6846 "those rights would mean. Every actor in each of the films could have a claim "
6847 "to royalties for the reuse of that film. But CD- ROMs had not been specified "
6848 "in the contracts for the actors, so there was no clear way to know just what "
6849 "Starwave was to do."
6852 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6853 #: freeculture.xml:5168
6855 "I asked Alben how he dealt with the problem. With an obvious pride in his "
6856 "resourcefulness that obscured the obvious bizarreness of his tale, Alben "
6857 "recounted just what they did:"
6860 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
6861 #: freeculture.xml:5174
6863 "So we very mechanically went about looking up the film clips. We made some "
6864 "artistic decisions about what film clips to include—of course we were "
6865 "going to use the \"Make my day\" clip from <citetitle>Dirty "
6866 "Harry</citetitle>. But you then need to get the guy on the ground who's "
6867 "wiggling under the gun and you need to get his permission. And then you "
6868 "have to decide what you are going to pay him."
6872 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
6873 #: freeculture.xml:5183
6875 "We decided that it would be fair if we offered them the dayplayer rate for "
6876 "the right to reuse that performance. We're talking about a clip of less than "
6877 "a minute, but to reuse that performance in the CD-ROM the rate at the time "
6878 "was about $600. So we had to identify the people—some of them were "
6879 "hard to identify because in Eastwood movies you can't tell who's the guy "
6880 "crashing through the glass—is it the actor or is it the stuntman? And "
6881 "then we just, we put together a team, my assistant and some others, and we "
6882 "just started calling people."
6885 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6886 #: freeculture.xml:5196
6888 "Some actors were glad to help—Donald Sutherland, for example, followed "
6889 "up himself to be sure that the rights had been cleared. Others were "
6890 "dumbfounded at their good fortune. Alben would ask, \"Hey, can I pay you "
6891 "$600 or maybe if you were in two films, you know, $1,200?\" And they would "
6892 "say, \"Are you for real? Hey, I'd love to get $1,200.\" And some of course "
6893 "were a bit difficult (estranged ex-wives, in particular). But eventually, "
6894 "Alben and his team had cleared the rights to this retrospective CD-ROM on "
6895 "Clint Eastwood's career."
6898 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6899 #: freeculture.xml:5207
6901 "It was one <emphasis>year</emphasis> later—\"and even then we weren't "
6902 "sure whether we were totally in the clear.\""
6905 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6906 #: freeculture.xml:5212
6908 "Alben is proud of his work. The project was the first of its kind and the "
6909 "only time he knew of that a team had undertaken such a massive project for "
6910 "the purpose of releasing a retrospective."
6913 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
6914 #: freeculture.xml:5218
6916 "Everyone thought it would be too hard. Everyone just threw up their hands "
6917 "and said, \"Oh, my gosh, a film, it's so many copyrights, there's the music, "
6918 "there's the screenplay, there's the director, there's the actors.\" But we "
6919 "just broke it down. We just put it into its constituent parts and said, "
6920 "\"Okay, there's this many actors, this many directors, … this many "
6921 "musicians,\" and we just went at it very systematically and cleared the "
6926 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6927 #: freeculture.xml:5230
6929 "And no doubt, the product itself was exceptionally good. Eastwood loved it, "
6930 "and it sold very well."
6933 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6934 #: freeculture.xml:5234
6935 msgid "Drucker, Peter"
6939 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6940 #: freeculture.xml:5242
6942 "U.S. Department of Commerce Office of Acquisition Management, "
6943 "<citetitle>Seven Steps to Performance-Based Services "
6944 "Acquisition</citetitle>, available at <ulink "
6945 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #22</ulink>."
6948 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6949 #: freeculture.xml:5236
6951 "But I pressed Alben about how weird it seems that it would have to take a "
6952 "year's work simply to clear rights. No doubt Alben had done this "
6953 "efficiently, but as Peter Drucker has famously quipped, \"There is nothing "
6954 "so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at "
6955 "all.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Did it make sense, I asked "
6956 "Alben, that this is the way a new work has to be made?"
6959 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6960 #: freeculture.xml:5250
6962 "For, as he acknowledged, \"very few … have the time and resources, "
6963 "and the will to do this,\" and thus, very few such works would ever be "
6964 "made. Does it make sense, I asked him, from the standpoint of what anybody "
6965 "really thought they were ever giving rights for originally, that you would "
6966 "have to go clear rights for these kinds of clips?"
6969 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
6970 #: freeculture.xml:5258
6972 "I don't think so. When an actor renders a performance in a movie, he or she "
6973 "gets paid very well. … And then when 30 seconds of that performance "
6974 "is used in a new product that is a retrospective of somebody's career, I "
6975 "don't think that that person … should be compensated for that."
6978 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6979 #: freeculture.xml:5266
6981 "Or at least, is this <emphasis>how</emphasis> the artist should be "
6982 "compensated? Would it make sense, I asked, for there to be some kind of "
6983 "statutory license that someone could pay and be free to make derivative use "
6984 "of clips like this? Did it really make sense that a follow-on creator would "
6985 "have to track down every artist, actor, director, musician, and get explicit "
6986 "permission from each? Wouldn't a lot more be created if the legal part of "
6987 "the creative process could be made to be more clean?"
6991 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
6992 #: freeculture.xml:5277
6994 "Absolutely. I think that if there were some fair-licensing "
6995 "mechanism—where you weren't subject to hold-ups and you weren't "
6996 "subject to estranged former spouses—you'd see a lot more of this work, "
6997 "because it wouldn't be so daunting to try to put together a retrospective of "
6998 "someone's career and meaningfully illustrate it with lots of media from that "
6999 "person's career. You'd build in a cost as the producer of one of these "
7000 "things. You'd build in a cost of paying X dollars to the talent that "
7001 "performed. But it would be a known cost. That's the thing that trips "
7002 "everybody up and makes this kind of product hard to get off the ground. If "
7003 "you knew I have a hundred minutes of film in this product and it's going to "
7004 "cost me X, then you build your budget around it, and you can get investments "
7005 "and everything else that you need to produce it. But if you say, \"Oh, I "
7006 "want a hundred minutes of something and I have no idea what it's going to "
7007 "cost me, and a certain number of people are going to hold me up for money,\" "
7008 "then it becomes difficult to put one of these things together."
7011 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7012 #: freeculture.xml:5298
7014 "Alben worked for a big company. His company was backed by some of the "
7015 "richest investors in the world. He therefore had authority and access that "
7016 "the average Web designer would not have. So if it took him a year, how long "
7017 "would it take someone else? And how much creativity is never made just "
7018 "because the costs of clearing the rights are so high? These costs are the "
7019 "burdens of a kind of regulation. Put on a Republican hat for a moment, and "
7020 "get angry for a bit. The government defines the scope of these rights, and "
7021 "the scope defined determines how much it's going to cost to negotiate "
7022 "them. (Remember the idea that land runs to the heavens, and imagine the "
7023 "pilot purchasing flythrough rights as he negotiates to fly from Los Angeles "
7024 "to San Francisco.) These rights might well have once made sense; but as "
7025 "circumstances change, they make no sense at all. Or at least, a "
7026 "well-trained, regulationminimizing Republican should look at the rights and "
7027 "ask, \"Does this still make sense?\""
7031 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7032 #: freeculture.xml:5315
7034 "I've seen the flash of recognition when people get this point, but only a "
7035 "few times. The first was at a conference of federal judges in California. "
7036 "The judges were gathered to discuss the emerging topic of cyber-law. I was "
7037 "asked to be on the panel. Harvey Saferstein, a well-respected lawyer from an "
7038 "L.A. firm, introduced the panel with a video that he and a friend, Robert "
7039 "Fairbank, had produced."
7042 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7043 #: freeculture.xml:5325
7045 "The video was a brilliant collage of film from every period in the twentieth "
7046 "century, all framed around the idea of a <citetitle>60 Minutes</citetitle> "
7047 "episode. The execution was perfect, down to the sixty-minute stopwatch. The "
7048 "judges loved every minute of it."
7051 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7052 #: freeculture.xml:5330
7053 msgid "Nimmer, David"
7056 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7057 #: freeculture.xml:5332
7059 "When the lights came up, I looked over to my copanelist, David Nimmer, "
7060 "perhaps the leading copyright scholar and practitioner in the nation. He had "
7061 "an astonished look on his face, as he peered across the room of over 250 "
7062 "well-entertained judges. Taking an ominous tone, he began his talk with a "
7063 "question: \"Do you know how many federal laws were just violated in this "
7067 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7068 #: freeculture.xml:5339
7069 msgid "Boies, David"
7072 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7073 #: freeculture.xml:5341
7075 "For of course, the two brilliantly talented creators who made this film "
7076 "hadn't done what Alben did. They hadn't spent a year clearing the rights to "
7077 "these clips; technically, what they had done violated the law. Of course, "
7078 "it wasn't as if they or anyone were going to be prosecuted for this "
7079 "violation (the presence of 250 judges and a gaggle of federal marshals "
7080 "notwithstanding). But Nimmer was making an important point: A year before "
7081 "anyone would have heard of the word Napster, and two years before another "
7082 "member of our panel, David Boies, would defend Napster before the Ninth "
7083 "Circuit Court of Appeals, Nimmer was trying to get the judges to see that "
7084 "the law would not be friendly to the capacities that this technology would "
7085 "enable. Technology means you can now do amazing things easily; but you "
7086 "couldn't easily do them legally."
7089 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7090 #: freeculture.xml:5356
7092 "We live in a \"cut and paste\" culture enabled by technology. Anyone "
7093 "building a presentation knows the extraordinary freedom that the cut and "
7094 "paste architecture of the Internet created—in a second you can find "
7095 "just about any image you want; in another second, you can have it planted in "
7096 "your presentation."
7099 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
7100 #: freeculture.xml:5372
7104 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7105 #: freeculture.xml:5363
7107 "But presentations are just a tiny beginning. Using the Internet and its "
7108 "archives, musicians are able to string together mixes of sound never before "
7109 "imagined; filmmakers are able to build movies out of clips on computers "
7110 "around the world. An extraordinary site in Sweden takes images of "
7111 "politicians and blends them with music to create biting political "
7112 "commentary. A site called Camp Chaos has produced some of the most biting "
7113 "criticism of the record industry that there is through the mixing of Flash! "
7114 "and music. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
7117 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7118 #: freeculture.xml:5375
7120 "All of these creations are technically illegal. Even if the creators wanted "
7121 "to be \"legal,\" the cost of complying with the law is impossibly "
7122 "high. Therefore, for the law-abiding sorts, a wealth of creativity is never "
7123 "made. And for that part that is made, if it doesn't follow the clearance "
7124 "rules, it doesn't get released."
7127 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7128 #: freeculture.xml:5382
7130 "To some, these stories suggest a solution: Let's alter the mix of rights so "
7131 "that people are free to build upon our culture. Free to add or mix as they "
7132 "see fit. We could even make this change without necessarily requiring that "
7133 "the \"free\" use be free as in \"free beer.\" Instead, the system could "
7134 "simply make it easy for follow-on creators to compensate artists without "
7135 "requiring an army of lawyers to come along: a rule, for example, that says "
7136 "\"the royalty owed the copyright owner of an unregistered work for the "
7137 "derivative reuse of his work will be a flat 1 percent of net revenues, to be "
7138 "held in escrow for the copyright owner.\" Under this rule, the copyright "
7139 "owner could benefit from some royalty, but he would not have the benefit of "
7140 "a full property right (meaning the right to name his own price) unless he "
7141 "registers the work."
7144 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7145 #: freeculture.xml:5397
7147 "Who could possibly object to this? And what reason would there be for "
7148 "objecting? We're talking about work that is not now being made; which if "
7149 "made, under this plan, would produce new income for artists. What reason "
7150 "would anyone have to oppose it?"
7154 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7155 #: freeculture.xml:5403
7157 "In February 2003, DreamWorks studios announced an agreement with Mike Myers, "
7158 "the comic genius of <citetitle>Saturday Night Live</citetitle> and Austin "
7159 "Powers. According to the announcement, Myers and Dream-Works would work "
7160 "together to form a \"unique filmmaking pact.\" Under the agreement, "
7161 "DreamWorks \"will acquire the rights to existing motion picture hits and "
7162 "classics, write new storylines and—with the use of stateof-the-art "
7163 "digital technology—insert Myers and other actors into the film, "
7164 "thereby creating an entirely new piece of entertainment.\""
7167 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7168 #: freeculture.xml:5415
7170 "The announcement called this \"film sampling.\" As Myers explained, \"Film "
7171 "Sampling is an exciting way to put an original spin on existing films and "
7172 "allow audiences to see old movies in a new light. Rap artists have been "
7173 "doing this for years with music and now we are able to take that same "
7174 "concept and apply it to film.\" Steven Spielberg is quoted as saying, \"If "
7175 "anyone can create a way to bring old films to new audiences, it is Mike.\""
7178 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7179 #: freeculture.xml:5424
7181 "Spielberg is right. Film sampling by Myers will be brilliant. But if you "
7182 "don't think about it, you might miss the truly astonishing point about this "
7183 "announcement. As the vast majority of our film heritage remains under "
7184 "copyright, the real meaning of the DreamWorks announcement is just this: It "
7185 "is Mike Myers and only Mike Myers who is free to sample. Any general freedom "
7186 "to build upon the film archive of our culture, a freedom in other contexts "
7187 "presumed for us all, is now a privilege reserved for the funny and "
7188 "famous—and presumably rich."
7191 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7192 #: freeculture.xml:5434
7194 "This privilege becomes reserved for two sorts of reasons. The first "
7195 "continues the story of the last chapter: the vagueness of \"fair use.\" Much "
7196 "of \"sampling\" should be considered \"fair use.\" But few would rely upon "
7197 "so weak a doctrine to create. That leads to the second reason that the "
7198 "privilege is reserved for the few: The costs of negotiating the legal rights "
7199 "for the creative reuse of content are astronomically high. These costs "
7200 "mirror the costs with fair use: You either pay a lawyer to defend your fair "
7201 "use rights or pay a lawyer to track down permissions so you don't have to "
7202 "rely upon fair use rights. Either way, the creative process is a process of "
7203 "paying lawyers—again a privilege, or perhaps a curse, reserved for the "
7207 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
7208 #: freeculture.xml:5449
7209 msgid "CHAPTER NINE: Collectors"
7212 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7213 #: freeculture.xml:5451
7215 "In April 1996, millions of \"bots\"—computer codes designed to "
7216 "\"spider,\" or automatically search the Internet and copy "
7217 "content—began running across the Net. Page by page, these bots copied "
7218 "Internet-based information onto a small set of computers located in a "
7219 "basement in San Francisco's Presidio. Once the bots finished the whole of "
7220 "the Internet, they started again. Over and over again, once every two "
7221 "months, these bits of code took copies of the Internet and stored them."
7224 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7225 #: freeculture.xml:5460
7227 "By October 2001, the bots had collected more than five years of copies. And "
7228 "at a small announcement in Berkeley, California, the archive that these "
7229 "copies created, the Internet Archive, was opened to the world. Using a "
7230 "technology called \"the Way Back Machine,\" you could enter a Web page, and "
7231 "see all of its copies going back to 1996, as well as when those pages "
7235 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7236 #: freeculture.xml:5468
7238 "This is the thing about the Internet that Orwell would have appreciated. In "
7239 "the dystopia described in <citetitle>1984</citetitle>, old newspapers were "
7240 "constantly updated to assure that the current view of the world, approved of "
7241 "by the government, was not contradicted by previous news reports."
7245 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7246 #: freeculture.xml:5476
7248 "Thousands of workers constantly reedited the past, meaning there was no way "
7249 "ever to know whether the story you were reading today was the story that was "
7250 "printed on the date published on the paper."
7253 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7254 #: freeculture.xml:5481
7256 "It's the same with the Internet. If you go to a Web page today, there's no "
7257 "way for you to know whether the content you are reading is the same as the "
7258 "content you read before. The page may seem the same, but the content could "
7259 "easily be different. The Internet is Orwell's library—constantly "
7260 "updated, without any reliable memory."
7264 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7265 #: freeculture.xml:5494
7267 "The temptations remain, however. Brewster Kahle reports that the White House "
7268 "changes its own press releases without notice. A May 13, 2003, press release "
7269 "stated, \"Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended.\" That was later changed, "
7270 "without notice, to \"Major Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended.\" E-mail "
7271 "from Brewster Kahle, 1 December 2003."
7274 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7275 #: freeculture.xml:5488
7277 "Until the Way Back Machine, at least. With the Way Back Machine, and the "
7278 "Internet Archive underlying it, you can see what the Internet was. You have "
7279 "the power to see what you remember. More importantly, perhaps, you also have "
7280 "the power to find what you don't remember and what others might prefer you "
7281 "forget.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
7284 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7285 #: freeculture.xml:5502
7287 "We take it for granted that we can go back to see what we remember "
7288 "reading. Think about newspapers. If you wanted to study the reaction of your "
7289 "hometown newspaper to the race riots in Watts in 1965, or to Bull Connor's "
7290 "water cannon in 1963, you could go to your public library and look at the "
7291 "newspapers. Those papers probably exist on microfiche. If you're lucky, they "
7292 "exist in paper, too. Either way, you are free, using a library, to go back "
7293 "and remember—not just what it is convenient to remember, but remember "
7294 "something close to the truth."
7297 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7298 #: freeculture.xml:5513
7300 "It is said that those who fail to remember history are doomed to repeat "
7301 "it. That's not quite correct. We <emphasis>all</emphasis> forget "
7302 "history. The key is whether we have a way to go back to rediscover what we "
7303 "forget. More directly, the key is whether an objective past can keep us "
7304 "honest. Libraries help do that, by collecting content and keeping it, for "
7305 "schoolchildren, for researchers, for grandma. A free society presumes this "
7310 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7311 #: freeculture.xml:5522
7313 "The Internet was an exception to this presumption. Until the Internet "
7314 "Archive, there was no way to go back. The Internet was the quintessentially "
7315 "transitory medium. And yet, as it becomes more important in forming and "
7316 "reforming society, it becomes more and more important to maintain in some "
7317 "historical form. It's just bizarre to think that we have scads of archives "
7318 "of newspapers from tiny towns around the world, yet there is but one copy of "
7319 "the Internet—the one kept by the Internet Archive."
7322 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7323 #: freeculture.xml:5533
7325 "Brewster Kahle is the founder of the Internet Archive. He was a very "
7326 "successful Internet entrepreneur after he was a successful computer "
7327 "researcher. In the 1990s, Kahle decided he had had enough business "
7328 "success. It was time to become a different kind of success. So he launched "
7329 "a series of projects designed to archive human knowledge. The Internet "
7330 "Archive was just the first of the projects of this Andrew Carnegie of the "
7331 "Internet. By December of 2002, the archive had over 10 billion pages, and it "
7332 "was growing at about a billion pages a month."
7335 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7336 #: freeculture.xml:5543
7338 "The Way Back Machine is the largest archive of human knowledge in human "
7339 "history. At the end of 2002, it held \"two hundred and thirty terabytes of "
7340 "material\"—and was \"ten times larger than the Library of Congress.\" "
7341 "And this was just the first of the archives that Kahle set out to build. In "
7342 "addition to the Internet Archive, Kahle has been constructing the Television "
7343 "Archive. Television, it turns out, is even more ephemeral than the "
7344 "Internet. While much of twentieth-century culture was constructed through "
7345 "television, only a tiny proportion of that culture is available for anyone "
7346 "to see today. Three hours of news are recorded each evening by Vanderbilt "
7347 "University—thanks to a specific exemption in the copyright law. That "
7348 "content is indexed, and is available to scholars for a very low fee. \"But "
7349 "other than that, [television] is almost unavailable,\" Kahle told me. \"If "
7350 "you were Barbara Walters you could get access to [the archives], but if you "
7351 "are just a graduate student?\" As Kahle put it,"
7355 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
7356 #: freeculture.xml:5561
7358 "Do you remember when Dan Quayle was interacting with Murphy Brown? Remember "
7359 "that back and forth surreal experience of a politician interacting with a "
7360 "fictional television character? If you were a graduate student wanting to "
7361 "study that, and you wanted to get those original back and forth exchanges "
7362 "between the two, the <citetitle>60 Minutes</citetitle> episode that came out "
7363 "after it … it would be almost impossible. … Those materials "
7364 "are almost unfindable. …"
7367 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7368 #: freeculture.xml:5573
7370 "Why is that? Why is it that the part of our culture that is recorded in "
7371 "newspapers remains perpetually accessible, while the part that is recorded "
7372 "on videotape is not? How is it that we've created a world where researchers "
7373 "trying to understand the effect of media on nineteenthcentury America will "
7374 "have an easier time than researchers trying to understand the effect of "
7375 "media on twentieth-century America?"
7378 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7379 #: freeculture.xml:5581
7381 "In part, this is because of the law. Early in American copyright law, "
7382 "copyright owners were required to deposit copies of their work in "
7383 "libraries. These copies were intended both to facilitate the spread of "
7384 "knowledge and to assure that a copy of the work would be around once the "
7385 "copyright expired, so that others might access and copy the work."
7389 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7390 #: freeculture.xml:5598
7392 "Doug Herrick, \"Toward a National Film Collection: Motion Pictures at the "
7393 "Library of Congress,\" <citetitle>Film Library Quarterly</citetitle> 13 "
7394 "nos. 2–3 (1980): 5; Anthony Slide, <citetitle>Nitrate Won't Wait: A "
7395 "History of Film Preservation in the United States</citetitle> ( Jefferson, "
7396 "N.C.: McFarland & Co., 1992), 36."
7399 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7400 #: freeculture.xml:5589
7402 "These rules applied to film as well. But in 1915, the Library of Congress "
7403 "made an exception for film. Film could be copyrighted so long as such "
7404 "deposits were made. But the filmmaker was then allowed to borrow back the "
7405 "deposits—for an unlimited time at no cost. In 1915 alone, there were "
7406 "more than 5,475 films deposited and \"borrowed back.\" Thus, when the "
7407 "copyrights to films expire, there is no copy held by any library. The copy "
7408 "exists—if it exists at all—in the library archive of the film "
7409 "company.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
7412 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7413 #: freeculture.xml:5606
7415 "The same is generally true about television. Television broadcasts were "
7416 "originally not copyrighted—there was no way to capture the broadcasts, "
7417 "so there was no fear of \"theft.\" But as technology enabled capturing, "
7418 "broadcasters relied increasingly upon the law. The law required they make a "
7419 "copy of each broadcast for the work to be \"copyrighted.\" But those copies "
7420 "were simply kept by the broadcasters. No library had any right to them; the "
7421 "government didn't demand them. The content of this part of American culture "
7422 "is practically invisible to anyone who would look."
7426 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7427 #: freeculture.xml:5617
7429 "Kahle was eager to correct this. Before September 11, 2001, he and his "
7430 "allies had started capturing television. They selected twenty stations from "
7431 "around the world and hit the Record button. After September 11, Kahle, "
7432 "working with dozens of others, selected twenty stations from around the "
7433 "world and, beginning October 11, 2001, made their coverage during the week "
7434 "of September 11 available free on-line. Anyone could see how news reports "
7435 "from around the world covered the events of that day."
7438 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
7439 #: freeculture.xml:5644
7440 msgid "Movie Archive"
7443 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7444 #: freeculture.xml:5628
7446 "Kahle had the same idea with film. Working with Rick Prelinger, whose "
7447 "archive of film includes close to 45,000 \"ephemeral films\" (meaning films "
7448 "other than Hollywood movies, films that were never copyrighted), Kahle "
7449 "established the Movie Archive. Prelinger let Kahle digitize 1,300 films in "
7450 "this archive and post those films on the Internet to be downloaded for "
7451 "free. Prelinger's is a for-profit company. It sells copies of these films as "
7452 "stock footage. What he has discovered is that after he made a significant "
7453 "chunk available for free, his stock footage sales went up "
7454 "dramatically. People could easily find the material they wanted to use. Some "
7455 "downloaded that material and made films on their own. Others purchased "
7456 "copies to enable other films to be made. Either way, the archive enabled "
7457 "access to this important part of our culture. Want to see a copy of the "
7458 "\"Duck and Cover\" film that instructed children how to save themselves in "
7459 "the middle of nuclear attack? Go to archive.org, and you can download the "
7460 "film in a few minutes—for free. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
7464 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7465 #: freeculture.xml:5647
7467 "Here again, Kahle is providing access to a part of our culture that we "
7468 "otherwise could not get easily, if at all. It is yet another part of what "
7469 "defines the twentieth century that we have lost to history. The law doesn't "
7470 "require these copies to be kept by anyone, or to be deposited in an archive "
7471 "by anyone. Therefore, there is no simple way to find them."
7474 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7475 #: freeculture.xml:5655
7477 "The key here is access, not price. Kahle wants to enable free access to this "
7478 "content, but he also wants to enable others to sell access to it. His aim is "
7479 "to ensure competition in access to this important part of our culture. Not "
7480 "during the commercial life of a bit of creative property, but during a "
7481 "second life that all creative property has—a noncommercial life."
7485 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7486 #: freeculture.xml:5663
7488 "For here is an idea that we should more clearly recognize. Every bit of "
7489 "creative property goes through different \"lives.\" In its first life, if "
7490 "the creator is lucky, the content is sold. In such cases the commercial "
7491 "market is successful for the creator. The vast majority of creative property "
7492 "doesn't enjoy such success, but some clearly does. For that content, "
7493 "commercial life is extremely important. Without this commercial market, "
7494 "there would be, many argue, much less creativity."
7497 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7498 #: freeculture.xml:5675
7500 "After the commercial life of creative property has ended, our tradition has "
7501 "always supported a second life as well. A newspaper delivers the news every "
7502 "day to the doorsteps of America. The very next day, it is used to wrap fish "
7503 "or to fill boxes with fragile gifts or to build an archive of knowledge "
7504 "about our history. In this second life, the content can continue to inform "
7505 "even if that information is no longer sold."
7509 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7510 #: freeculture.xml:5687
7512 "Dave Barns, \"Fledgling Career in Antique Books: Woodstock Landlord, Bar "
7513 "Owner Starts a New Chapter by Adopting Business,\" <citetitle>Chicago "
7514 "Tribune</citetitle>, 5 September 1997, at Metro Lake 1L. Of books published "
7515 "between 1927 and 1946, only 2.2 percent were in print in 2002. R. Anthony "
7516 "Reese, \"The First Sale Doctrine in the Era of Digital Networks,\" "
7517 "<citetitle>Boston College Law Review</citetitle> 44 (2003): 593 n. 51."
7520 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7521 #: freeculture.xml:5684
7523 "The same has always been true about books. A book goes out of print very "
7524 "quickly (the average today is after about a year<placeholder "
7525 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>). After it is out of print, it can be sold in "
7526 "used book stores without the copyright owner getting anything and stored in "
7527 "libraries, where many get to read the book, also for free. Used book stores "
7528 "and libraries are thus the second life of a book. That second life is "
7529 "extremely important to the spread and stability of culture."
7532 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7533 #: freeculture.xml:5701
7535 "Yet increasingly, any assumption about a stable second life for creative "
7536 "property does not hold true with the most important components of popular "
7537 "culture in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. For "
7538 "these—television, movies, music, radio, the Internet—there is no "
7539 "guarantee of a second life. For these sorts of culture, it is as if we've "
7540 "replaced libraries with Barnes & Noble superstores. With this culture, "
7541 "what's accessible is nothing but what a certain limited market demands. "
7542 "Beyond that, culture disappears."
7546 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7547 #: freeculture.xml:5712
7549 "For most of the twentieth century, it was economics that made this so. It "
7550 "would have been insanely expensive to collect and make accessible all "
7551 "television and film and music: The cost of analog copies is extraordinarily "
7552 "high. So even though the law in principle would have restricted the ability "
7553 "of a Brewster Kahle to copy culture generally, the real restriction was "
7554 "economics. The market made it impossibly difficult to do anything about this "
7555 "ephemeral culture; the law had little practical effect."
7558 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7559 #: freeculture.xml:5724
7561 "Perhaps the single most important feature of the digital revolution is that "
7562 "for the first time since the Library of Alexandria, it is feasible to "
7563 "imagine constructing archives that hold all culture produced or distributed "
7564 "publicly. Technology makes it possible to imagine an archive of all books "
7565 "published, and increasingly makes it possible to imagine an archive of all "
7566 "moving images and sound."
7569 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7570 #: freeculture.xml:5732
7572 "The scale of this potential archive is something we've never imagined "
7573 "before. The Brewster Kahles of our history have dreamed about it; but we are "
7574 "for the first time at a point where that dream is possible. As Kahle "
7578 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
7579 #: freeculture.xml:5739
7581 "It looks like there's about two to three million recordings of music. "
7582 "Ever. There are about a hundred thousand theatrical releases of movies, "
7583 "… and about one to two million movies [distributed] during the "
7584 "twentieth century. There are about twenty-six million different titles of "
7585 "books. All of these would fit on computers that would fit in this room and "
7586 "be able to be afforded by a small company. So we're at a turning point in "
7587 "our history. Universal access is the goal. And the opportunity of leading a "
7588 "different life, based on this, is … thrilling. It could be one of the "
7589 "things humankind would be most proud of. Up there with the Library of "
7590 "Alexandria, putting a man on the moon, and the invention of the printing "
7595 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7596 #: freeculture.xml:5753
7598 "Kahle is not the only librarian. The Internet Archive is not the only "
7599 "archive. But Kahle and the Internet Archive suggest what the future of "
7600 "libraries or archives could be. <emphasis>When</emphasis> the commercial "
7601 "life of creative property ends, I don't know. But it does. And whenever it "
7602 "does, Kahle and his archive hint at a world where this knowledge, and "
7603 "culture, remains perpetually available. Some will draw upon it to understand "
7604 "it; some to criticize it. Some will use it, as Walt Disney did, to re-create "
7605 "the past for the future. These technologies promise something that had "
7606 "become unimaginable for much of our past—a future "
7607 "<emphasis>for</emphasis> our past. The technology of digital arts could make "
7608 "the dream of the Library of Alexandria real again."
7611 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7612 #: freeculture.xml:5768
7614 "Technologists have thus removed the economic costs of building such an "
7615 "archive. But lawyers' costs remain. For as much as we might like to call "
7616 "these \"archives,\" as warm as the idea of a \"library\" might seem, the "
7617 "\"content\" that is collected in these digital spaces is also someone's "
7618 "\"property.\" And the law of property restricts the freedoms that Kahle and "
7619 "others would exercise."
7622 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
7623 #: freeculture.xml:5778
7624 msgid "CHAPTER TEN: \"Property\""
7627 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
7628 #: freeculture.xml:5787
7629 msgid "Johnson, Lyndon"
7632 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
7633 #: freeculture.xml:5788 freeculture.xml:9442
7634 msgid "Kennedy, John F."
7637 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7638 #: freeculture.xml:5780
7640 "Jack Valenti has been the president of the Motion Picture Association of "
7641 "America since 1966. He first came to Washington, D.C., with Lyndon Johnson's "
7642 "administration—literally. The famous picture of Johnson's swearing-in "
7643 "on Air Force One after the assassination of President Kennedy has Valenti in "
7644 "the background. In his almost forty years of running the MPAA, Valenti has "
7645 "established himself as perhaps the most prominent and effective lobbyist in "
7646 "Washington. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
7647 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
7650 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
7651 #: freeculture.xml:5801
7652 msgid "Disney, Inc."
7655 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
7656 #: freeculture.xml:5802
7657 msgid "Sony Pictures Entertainment"
7660 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
7661 #: freeculture.xml:5803
7665 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
7666 #: freeculture.xml:5804
7667 msgid "Paramount Pictures"
7670 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
7671 #: freeculture.xml:5805
7672 msgid "Twentieth Century Fox"
7675 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
7676 #: freeculture.xml:5806
7677 msgid "Universal Pictures"
7680 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
7681 #: freeculture.xml:5807 freeculture.xml:7197
7682 msgid "Warner Brothers"
7685 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7686 #: freeculture.xml:5791
7688 "The MPAA is the American branch of the international Motion Picture "
7689 "Association. It was formed in 1922 as a trade association whose goal was to "
7690 "defend American movies against increasing domestic criticism. The "
7691 "organization now represents not only filmmakers but producers and "
7692 "distributors of entertainment for television, video, and cable. Its board is "
7693 "made up of the chairmen and presidents of the seven major producers and "
7694 "distributors of motion picture and television programs in the United States: "
7695 "Walt Disney, Sony Pictures Entertainment, MGM, Paramount Pictures, Twentieth "
7696 "Century Fox, Universal Studios, and Warner Brothers. <placeholder "
7697 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> "
7698 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
7699 "id=\"3\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"4\"/> <placeholder "
7700 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"5\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"6\"/>"
7704 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7705 #: freeculture.xml:5811
7707 "Valenti is only the third president of the MPAA. No president before him has "
7708 "had as much influence over that organization, or over Washington. As a "
7709 "Texan, Valenti has mastered the single most important political skill of a "
7710 "Southerner—the ability to appear simple and slow while hiding a "
7711 "lightning-fast intellect. To this day, Valenti plays the simple, humble "
7712 "man. But this Harvard MBA, and author of four books, who finished high "
7713 "school at the age of fifteen and flew more than fifty combat missions in "
7714 "World War II, is no Mr. Smith. When Valenti went to Washington, he mastered "
7715 "the city in a quintessentially Washingtonian way."
7718 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7719 #: freeculture.xml:5823
7721 "In defending artistic liberty and the freedom of speech that our culture "
7722 "depends upon, the MPAA has done important good. In crafting the MPAA rating "
7723 "system, it has probably avoided a great deal of speech-regulating harm. But "
7724 "there is an aspect to the organization's mission that is both the most "
7725 "radical and the most important. This is the organization's effort, "
7726 "epitomized in Valenti's every act, to redefine the meaning of \"creative "
7730 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7731 #: freeculture.xml:5832
7732 msgid "In 1982, Valenti's testimony to Congress captured the strategy perfectly:"
7736 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
7737 #: freeculture.xml:5846
7739 "Home Recording of Copyrighted Works: Hearings on H.R. 4783, H.R. 4794, "
7740 "H.R. 4808, H.R. 5250, H.R. 5488, and H.R. 5705 Before the Subcommittee on "
7741 "Courts, Civil Liberties, and the Administration of Justice of the Committee "
7742 "on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives, 97th Cong., 2nd "
7743 "sess. (1982): 65 (testimony of Jack Valenti)."
7746 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
7747 #: freeculture.xml:5837
7749 "No matter the lengthy arguments made, no matter the charges and the "
7750 "counter-charges, no matter the tumult and the shouting, reasonable men and "
7751 "women will keep returning to the fundamental issue, the central theme which "
7752 "animates this entire debate: <emphasis>Creative property owners must be "
7753 "accorded the same rights and protection resident in all other property "
7754 "owners in the nation</emphasis>. That is the issue. That is the "
7755 "question. And that is the rostrum on which this entire hearing and the "
7756 "debates to follow must rest.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
7760 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7761 #: freeculture.xml:5856
7763 "The strategy of this rhetoric, like the strategy of most of Valenti's "
7764 "rhetoric, is brilliant and simple and brilliant because simple. The "
7765 "\"central theme\" to which \"reasonable men and women\" will return is this: "
7766 "\"Creative property owners must be accorded the same rights and protections "
7767 "resident in all other property owners in the nation.\" There are no "
7768 "second-class citizens, Valenti might have continued. There should be no "
7769 "second-class property owners."
7772 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7773 #: freeculture.xml:5867
7775 "This claim has an obvious and powerful intuitive pull. It is stated with "
7776 "such clarity as to make the idea as obvious as the notion that we use "
7777 "elections to pick presidents. But in fact, there is no more extreme a claim "
7778 "made by <emphasis>anyone</emphasis> who is serious in this debate than this "
7779 "claim of Valenti's. Jack Valenti, however sweet and however brilliant, is "
7780 "perhaps the nation's foremost extremist when it comes to the nature and "
7781 "scope of \"creative property.\" His views have <emphasis>no</emphasis> "
7782 "reasonable connection to our actual legal tradition, even if the subtle pull "
7783 "of his Texan charm has slowly redefined that tradition, at least in "
7788 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7789 #: freeculture.xml:5882
7791 "Lawyers speak of \"property\" not as an absolute thing, but as a bundle of "
7792 "rights that are sometimes associated with a particular object. Thus, my "
7793 "\"property right\" to my car gives me the right to exclusive use, but not "
7794 "the right to drive at 150 miles an hour. For the best effort to connect the "
7795 "ordinary meaning of \"property\" to \"lawyer talk,\" see Bruce Ackerman, "
7796 "<citetitle>Private Property and the Constitution</citetitle> (New Haven: "
7797 "Yale University Press, 1977), 26–27."
7800 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7801 #: freeculture.xml:5879
7803 "While \"creative property\" is certainly \"property\" in a nerdy and precise "
7804 "sense that lawyers are trained to understand,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
7805 "id=\"0\"/> it has never been the case, nor should it be, that \"creative "
7806 "property owners\" have been \"accorded the same rights and protection "
7807 "resident in all other property owners.\" Indeed, if creative property owners "
7808 "were given the same rights as all other property owners, that would effect a "
7809 "radical, and radically undesirable, change in our tradition."
7812 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7813 #: freeculture.xml:5897
7815 "Valenti knows this. But he speaks for an industry that cares squat for our "
7816 "tradition and the values it represents. He speaks for an industry that is "
7817 "instead fighting to restore the tradition that the British overturned in "
7818 "1710. In the world that Valenti's changes would create, a powerful few would "
7819 "exercise powerful control over how our creative culture would develop."
7823 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7824 #: freeculture.xml:5905
7826 "I have two purposes in this chapter. The first is to convince you that, "
7827 "historically, Valenti's claim is absolutely wrong. The second is to convince "
7828 "you that it would be terribly wrong for us to reject our history. We have "
7829 "always treated rights in creative property differently from the rights "
7830 "resident in all other property owners. They have never been the same. And "
7831 "they should never be the same, because, however counterintuitive this may "
7832 "seem, to make them the same would be to fundamentally weaken the opportunity "
7833 "for new creators to create. Creativity depends upon the owners of "
7834 "creativity having less than perfect control."
7837 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7838 #: freeculture.xml:5920
7840 "Organizations such as the MPAA, whose board includes the most powerful of "
7841 "the old guard, have little interest, their rhetoric notwithstanding, in "
7842 "assuring that the new can displace them. No organization does. No person "
7843 "does. (Ask me about tenure, for example.) But what's good for the MPAA is "
7844 "not necessarily good for America. A society that defends the ideals of free "
7845 "culture must preserve precisely the opportunity for new creativity to "
7846 "threaten the old. To get just a hint that there is something fundamentally "
7847 "wrong in Valenti's argument, we need look no further than the United States "
7848 "Constitution itself."
7851 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7852 #: freeculture.xml:5932
7854 "The framers of our Constitution loved \"property.\" Indeed, so strongly did "
7855 "they love property that they built into the Constitution an important "
7856 "requirement. If the government takes your property—if it condemns your "
7857 "house, or acquires a slice of land from your farm—it is required, "
7858 "under the Fifth Amendment's \"Takings Clause,\" to pay you \"just "
7859 "compensation\" for that taking. The Constitution thus guarantees that "
7860 "property is, in a certain sense, sacred. It cannot <emphasis>ever</emphasis> "
7861 "be taken from the property owner unless the government pays for the "
7866 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7867 #: freeculture.xml:5943
7869 "Yet the very same Constitution speaks very differently about what Valenti "
7870 "calls \"creative property.\" In the clause granting Congress the power to "
7871 "create \"creative property,\" the Constitution <emphasis>requires</emphasis> "
7872 "that after a \"limited time,\" Congress take back the rights that it has "
7873 "granted and set the \"creative property\" free to the public domain. Yet "
7874 "when Congress does this, when the expiration of a copyright term \"takes\" "
7875 "your copyright and turns it over to the public domain, Congress does not "
7876 "have any obligation to pay \"just compensation\" for this \"taking.\" "
7877 "Instead, the same Constitution that requires compensation for your land "
7878 "requires that you lose your \"creative property\" right without any "
7879 "compensation at all."
7882 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7883 #: freeculture.xml:5958
7885 "The Constitution thus on its face states that these two forms of property "
7886 "are not to be accorded the same rights. They are plainly to be treated "
7887 "differently. Valenti is therefore not just asking for a change in our "
7888 "tradition when he argues that creative-property owners should be accorded "
7889 "the same rights as every other property-right owner. He is effectively "
7890 "arguing for a change in our Constitution itself."
7893 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7894 #: freeculture.xml:5967
7896 "Arguing for a change in our Constitution is not necessarily wrong. There "
7897 "was much in our original Constitution that was plainly wrong. The "
7898 "Constitution of 1789 entrenched slavery; it left senators to be appointed "
7899 "rather than elected; it made it possible for the electoral college to "
7900 "produce a tie between the president and his own vice president (as it did in "
7901 "1800). The framers were no doubt extraordinary, but I would be the first to "
7902 "admit that they made big mistakes. We have since rejected some of those "
7903 "mistakes; no doubt there could be others that we should reject as well. So "
7904 "my argument is not simply that because Jefferson did it, we should, too."
7907 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7908 #: freeculture.xml:5979
7910 "Instead, my argument is that because Jefferson did it, we should at least "
7911 "try to understand <emphasis>why</emphasis>. Why did the framers, fanatical "
7912 "property types that they were, reject the claim that creative property be "
7913 "given the same rights as all other property? Why did they require that for "
7914 "creative property there must be a public domain?"
7917 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7918 #: freeculture.xml:5987
7920 "To answer this question, we need to get some perspective on the history of "
7921 "these \"creative property\" rights, and the control that they enabled. Once "
7922 "we see clearly how differently these rights have been defined, we will be in "
7923 "a better position to ask the question that should be at the core of this "
7924 "war: Not <emphasis>whether</emphasis> creative property should be protected, "
7925 "but how. Not <emphasis>whether</emphasis> we will enforce the rights the law "
7926 "gives to creative-property owners, but what the particular mix of rights "
7927 "ought to be. Not <emphasis>whether</emphasis> artists should be paid, but "
7928 "whether institutions designed to assure that artists get paid need also "
7929 "control how culture develops."
7933 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7934 #: freeculture.xml:6002
7936 "To answer these questions, we need a more general way to talk about how "
7937 "property is protected. More precisely, we need a more general way than the "
7938 "narrow language of the law allows. In <citetitle>Code and Other Laws of "
7939 "Cyberspace</citetitle>, I used a simple model to capture this more general "
7940 "perspective. For any particular right or regulation, this model asks how "
7941 "four different modalities of regulation interact to support or weaken the "
7942 "right or regulation. I represented it with this diagram:"
7945 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><figure><title>
7946 #: freeculture.xml:6011
7948 "How four different modalities of regulation interact to support or weaken "
7949 "the right or regulation."
7952 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
7953 #: freeculture.xml:6012 freeculture.xml:6187 freeculture.xml:6489
7954 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1331.png\"></graphic>"
7957 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7958 #: freeculture.xml:6015
7960 "At the center of this picture is a regulated dot: the individual or group "
7961 "that is the target of regulation, or the holder of a right. (In each case "
7962 "throughout, we can describe this either as regulation or as a right. For "
7963 "simplicity's sake, I will speak only of regulations.) The ovals represent "
7964 "four ways in which the individual or group might be regulated— either "
7965 "constrained or, alternatively, enabled. Law is the most obvious constraint "
7966 "(to lawyers, at least). It constrains by threatening punishments after the "
7967 "fact if the rules set in advance are violated. So if, for example, you "
7968 "willfully infringe Madonna's copyright by copying a song from her latest CD "
7969 "and posting it on the Web, you can be punished with a $150,000 fine. The "
7970 "fine is an ex post punishment for violating an ex ante rule. It is imposed "
7971 "by the state. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
7974 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7975 #: freeculture.xml:6032
7977 "Norms are a different kind of constraint. They, too, punish an individual "
7978 "for violating a rule. But the punishment of a norm is imposed by a "
7979 "community, not (or not only) by the state. There may be no law against "
7980 "spitting, but that doesn't mean you won't be punished if you spit on the "
7981 "ground while standing in line at a movie. The punishment might not be harsh, "
7982 "though depending upon the community, it could easily be more harsh than many "
7983 "of the punishments imposed by the state. The mark of the difference is not "
7984 "the severity of the rule, but the source of the enforcement."
7987 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7988 #: freeculture.xml:6043
7990 "The market is a third type of constraint. Its constraint is effected through "
7991 "conditions: You can do X if you pay Y; you'll be paid M if you do N. These "
7992 "constraints are obviously not independent of law or norms—it is "
7993 "property law that defines what must be bought if it is to be taken legally; "
7994 "it is norms that say what is appropriately sold. But given a set of norms, "
7995 "and a background of property and contract law, the market imposes a "
7996 "simultaneous constraint upon how an individual or group might behave."
7999 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8000 #: freeculture.xml:6053
8002 "Finally, and for the moment, perhaps, most mysteriously, "
8003 "\"architecture\"—the physical world as one finds it—is a "
8004 "constraint on behavior. A fallen bridge might constrain your ability to get "
8005 "across a river. Railroad tracks might constrain the ability of a community "
8006 "to integrate its social life. As with the market, architecture does not "
8007 "effect its constraint through ex post punishments. Instead, also as with the "
8008 "market, architecture effects its constraint through simultaneous "
8009 "conditions. These conditions are imposed not by courts enforcing contracts, "
8010 "or by police punishing theft, but by nature, by \"architecture.\" If a "
8011 "500-pound boulder blocks your way, it is the law of gravity that enforces "
8012 "this constraint. If a $500 airplane ticket stands between you and a flight "
8013 "to New York, it is the market that enforces this constraint."
8017 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8018 #: freeculture.xml:6070
8020 "So the first point about these four modalities of regulation is obvious: "
8021 "They interact. Restrictions imposed by one might be reinforced by "
8022 "another. Or restrictions imposed by one might be undermined by another."
8025 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8026 #: freeculture.xml:6076
8028 "The second point follows directly: If we want to understand the effective "
8029 "freedom that anyone has at a given moment to do any particular thing, we "
8030 "have to consider how these four modalities interact. Whether or not there "
8031 "are other constraints (there may well be; my claim is not about "
8032 "comprehensiveness), these four are among the most significant, and any "
8033 "regulator (whether controlling or freeing) must consider how these four in "
8034 "particular interact."
8037 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8038 #: freeculture.xml:6085
8039 msgid "driving speed, constraints on"
8042 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8043 #: freeculture.xml:6088
8045 "So, for example, consider the \"freedom\" to drive a car at a high "
8046 "speed. That freedom is in part restricted by laws: speed limits that say how "
8047 "fast you can drive in particular places at particular times. It is in part "
8048 "restricted by architecture: speed bumps, for example, slow most rational "
8049 "drivers; governors in buses, as another example, set the maximum rate at "
8050 "which the driver can drive. The freedom is in part restricted by the market: "
8051 "Fuel efficiency drops as speed increases, thus the price of gasoline "
8052 "indirectly constrains speed. And finally, the norms of a community may or "
8053 "may not constrain the freedom to speed. Drive at 50 mph by a school in your "
8054 "own neighborhood and you're likely to be punished by the neighbors. The same "
8055 "norm wouldn't be as effective in a different town, or at night."
8059 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
8060 #: freeculture.xml:6106
8062 "By describing the way law affects the other three modalities, I don't mean "
8063 "to suggest that the other three don't affect law. Obviously, they do. Law's "
8064 "only distinction is that it alone speaks as if it has a right "
8065 "self-consciously to change the other three. The right of the other three is "
8066 "more timidly expressed. See Lawrence Lessig, <citetitle>Code: And Other "
8067 "Laws of Cyberspace</citetitle> (New York: Basic Books, 1999): 90–95; "
8068 "Lawrence Lessig, \"The New Chicago School,\" <citetitle>Journal of Legal "
8069 "Studies</citetitle>, June 1998."
8073 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8074 #: freeculture.xml:6102
8076 "The final point about this simple model should also be fairly clear: While "
8077 "these four modalities are analytically independent, law has a special role "
8078 "in affecting the three.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The law, in "
8079 "other words, sometimes operates to increase or decrease the constraint of a "
8080 "particular modality. Thus, the law might be used to increase taxes on "
8081 "gasoline, so as to increase the incentives to drive more slowly. The law "
8082 "might be used to mandate more speed bumps, so as to increase the difficulty "
8083 "of driving rapidly. The law might be used to fund ads that stigmatize "
8084 "reckless driving. Or the law might be used to require that other laws be "
8085 "more strict—a federal requirement that states decrease the speed "
8086 "limit, for example—so as to decrease the attractiveness of fast "
8090 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><figure><title>
8091 #: freeculture.xml:6130
8092 msgid "Law has a special role in affecting the three."
8095 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><figure>
8096 #: freeculture.xml:6131
8097 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1361.png\"></graphic>"
8100 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
8101 #: freeculture.xml:6170
8102 msgid "Commons, John R."
8105 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
8106 #: freeculture.xml:6142
8108 "Some people object to this way of talking about \"liberty.\" They object "
8109 "because their focus when considering the constraints that exist at any "
8110 "particular moment are constraints imposed exclusively by the government. For "
8111 "instance, if a storm destroys a bridge, these people think it is meaningless "
8112 "to say that one's liberty has been restrained. A bridge has washed out, and "
8113 "it's harder to get from one place to another. To talk about this as a loss "
8114 "of freedom, they say, is to confuse the stuff of politics with the vagaries "
8115 "of ordinary life. I don't mean to deny the value in this narrower view, "
8116 "which depends upon the context of the inquiry. I do, however, mean to argue "
8117 "against any insistence that this narrower view is the only proper view of "
8118 "liberty. As I argued in <citetitle>Code</citetitle>, we come from a long "
8119 "tradition of political thought with a broader focus than the narrow question "
8120 "of what the government did when. John Stuart Mill defended freedom of "
8121 "speech, for example, from the tyranny of narrow minds, not from the fear of "
8122 "government prosecution; John Stuart Mill, <citetitle>On Liberty</citetitle> "
8123 "(Indiana: Hackett Publishing Co., 1978), 19. John R. Commons famously "
8124 "defended the economic freedom of labor from constraints imposed by the "
8125 "market; John R. Commons, \"The Right to Work,\" in Malcom Rutherford and "
8126 "Warren J. Samuels, eds., <citetitle>John R. Commons: Selected "
8127 "Essays</citetitle> (London: Routledge: 1997), 62. The Americans with "
8128 "Disabilities Act increases the liberty of people with physical disabilities "
8129 "by changing the architecture of certain public places, thereby making access "
8130 "to those places easier; 42 <citetitle>United States Code</citetitle>, "
8131 "section 12101 (2000). Each of these interventions to change existing "
8132 "conditions changes the liberty of a particular group. The effect of those "
8133 "interventions should be accounted for in order to understand the effective "
8134 "liberty that each of these groups might face. <placeholder "
8135 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
8138 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8139 #: freeculture.xml:6134
8141 "These constraints can thus change, and they can be changed. To understand "
8142 "the effective protection of liberty or protection of property at any "
8143 "particular moment, we must track these changes over time. A restriction "
8144 "imposed by one modality might be erased by another. A freedom enabled by one "
8145 "modality might be displaced by another.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
8149 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
8150 #: freeculture.xml:6174
8151 msgid "Why Hollywood Is Right"
8154 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8155 #: freeculture.xml:6176
8157 "The most obvious point that this model reveals is just why, or just how, "
8158 "Hollywood is right. The copyright warriors have rallied Congress and the "
8159 "courts to defend copyright. This model helps us see why that rallying makes "
8163 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8164 #: freeculture.xml:6182
8165 msgid "Let's say this is the picture of copyright's regulation before the Internet:"
8168 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
8169 #: freeculture.xml:6186 freeculture.xml:6488
8170 msgid "Copyright's regulation before the Internet."
8174 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8175 #: freeculture.xml:6191
8177 "There is balance between law, norms, market, and architecture. The law "
8178 "limits the ability to copy and share content, by imposing penalties on those "
8179 "who copy and share content. Those penalties are reinforced by technologies "
8180 "that make it hard to copy and share content (architecture) and expensive to "
8181 "copy and share content (market). Finally, those penalties are mitigated by "
8182 "norms we all recognize—kids, for example, taping other kids' "
8183 "records. These uses of copyrighted material may well be infringement, but "
8184 "the norms of our society (before the Internet, at least) had no problem with "
8185 "this form of infringement."
8188 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8189 #: freeculture.xml:6203
8191 "Enter the Internet, or, more precisely, technologies such as MP3s and p2p "
8192 "sharing. Now the constraint of architecture changes dramatically, as does "
8193 "the constraint of the market. And as both the market and architecture relax "
8194 "the regulation of copyright, norms pile on. The happy balance (for the "
8195 "warriors, at least) of life before the Internet becomes an effective state "
8196 "of anarchy after the Internet."
8200 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8201 #: freeculture.xml:6211
8203 "Thus the sense of, and justification for, the warriors' response. "
8204 "Technology has changed, the warriors say, and the effect of this change, "
8205 "when ramified through the market and norms, is that a balance of protection "
8206 "for the copyright owners' rights has been lost. This is Iraq after the fall "
8207 "of Saddam, but this time no government is justifying the looting that "
8211 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
8212 #: freeculture.xml:6221
8213 msgid "effective state of anarchy after the Internet."
8216 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
8217 #: freeculture.xml:6222
8218 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1381.png\"></graphic>"
8221 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8222 #: freeculture.xml:6225
8224 "Neither this analysis nor the conclusions that follow are new to the "
8225 "warriors. Indeed, in a \"White Paper\" prepared by the Commerce Department "
8226 "(one heavily influenced by the copyright warriors) in 1995, this mix of "
8227 "regulatory modalities had already been identified and the strategy to "
8228 "respond already mapped. In response to the changes the Internet had "
8229 "effected, the White Paper argued (1) Congress should strengthen intellectual "
8230 "property law, (2) businesses should adopt innovative marketing techniques, "
8231 "(3) technologists should push to develop code to protect copyrighted "
8232 "material, and (4) educators should educate kids to better protect copyright."
8236 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8237 #: freeculture.xml:6237
8239 "This mixed strategy is just what copyright needed—if it was to "
8240 "preserve the particular balance that existed before the change induced by "
8241 "the Internet. And it's just what we should expect the content industry to "
8242 "push for. It is as American as apple pie to consider the happy life you have "
8243 "as an entitlement, and to look to the law to protect it if something comes "
8244 "along to change that happy life. Homeowners living in a flood plain have no "
8245 "hesitation appealing to the government to rebuild (and rebuild again) when a "
8246 "flood (architecture) wipes away their property (law). Farmers have no "
8247 "hesitation appealing to the government to bail them out when a virus "
8248 "(architecture) devastates their crop. Unions have no hesitation appealing to "
8249 "the government to bail them out when imports (market) wipe out the "
8250 "U.S. steel industry."
8253 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8254 #: freeculture.xml:6254
8256 "Thus, there's nothing wrong or surprising in the content industry's campaign "
8257 "to protect itself from the harmful consequences of a technological "
8258 "innovation. And I would be the last person to argue that the changing "
8259 "technology of the Internet has not had a profound effect on the content "
8260 "industry's way of doing business, or as John Seely Brown describes it, its "
8261 "\"architecture of revenue.\""
8265 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
8266 #: freeculture.xml:6270
8268 "See Geoffrey Smith, \"Film vs. Digital: Can Kodak Build a Bridge?\" "
8269 "BusinessWeek online, 2 August 1999, available at <ulink "
8270 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #23</ulink>. For a more recent "
8271 "analysis of Kodak's place in the market, see Chana R. Schoenberger, \"Can "
8272 "Kodak Make Up for Lost Moments?\" Forbes.com, 6 October 2003, available at "
8273 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #24</ulink>."
8276 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8277 #: freeculture.xml:6262
8279 "But just because a particular interest asks for government support, it "
8280 "doesn't follow that support should be granted. And just because technology "
8281 "has weakened a particular way of doing business, it doesn't follow that the "
8282 "government should intervene to support that old way of doing "
8283 "business. Kodak, for example, has lost perhaps as much as 20 percent of "
8284 "their traditional film market to the emerging technologies of digital "
8285 "cameras.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Does anyone believe the "
8286 "government should ban digital cameras just to support Kodak? Highways have "
8287 "weakened the freight business for railroads. Does anyone think we should ban "
8288 "trucks from roads <emphasis>for the purpose of</emphasis> protecting the "
8289 "railroads? Closer to the subject of this book, remote channel changers have "
8290 "weakened the \"stickiness\" of television advertising (if a boring "
8291 "commercial comes on the TV, the remote makes it easy to surf ), and it may "
8292 "well be that this change has weakened the television advertising market. But "
8293 "does anyone believe we should regulate remotes to reinforce commercial "
8294 "television? (Maybe by limiting them to function only once a second, or to "
8295 "switch to only ten channels within an hour?)"
8299 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
8300 #: freeculture.xml:6302
8302 "Fred Warshofsky, <citetitle>The Patent Wars</citetitle> (New York: Wiley, "
8303 "1994), 170–71."
8306 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
8307 #: freeculture.xml:6311 freeculture.xml:12717
8311 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8312 #: freeculture.xml:6292
8314 "The obvious answer to these obviously rhetorical questions is no. In a free "
8315 "society, with a free market, supported by free enterprise and free trade, "
8316 "the government's role is not to support one way of doing business against "
8317 "others. Its role is not to pick winners and protect them against loss. If "
8318 "the government did this generally, then we would never have any progress. As "
8319 "Microsoft chairman Bill Gates wrote in 1991, in a memo criticizing software "
8320 "patents, \"established companies have an interest in excluding future "
8321 "competitors.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> And relative to a "
8322 "startup, established companies also have the means. (Think RCA and FM "
8323 "radio.) A world in which competitors with new ideas must fight not only the "
8324 "market but also the government is a world in which competitors with new "
8325 "ideas will not succeed. It is a world of stasis and increasingly "
8326 "concentrated stagnation. It is the Soviet Union under Brezhnev. "
8327 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
8330 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8331 #: freeculture.xml:6314
8333 "Thus, while it is understandable for industries threatened with new "
8334 "technologies that change the way they do business to look to the government "
8335 "for protection, it is the special duty of policy makers to guarantee that "
8336 "that protection not become a deterrent to progress. It is the duty of policy "
8337 "makers, in other words, to assure that the changes they create, in response "
8338 "to the request of those hurt by changing technology, are changes that "
8339 "preserve the incentives and opportunities for innovation and change."
8342 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8343 #: freeculture.xml:6324
8345 "In the context of laws regulating speech—which include, obviously, "
8346 "copyright law—that duty is even stronger. When the industry "
8347 "complaining about changing technologies is asking Congress to respond in a "
8348 "way that burdens speech and creativity, policy makers should be especially "
8349 "wary of the request. It is always a bad deal for the government to get into "
8350 "the business of regulating speech markets. The risks and dangers of that "
8351 "game are precisely why our framers created the First Amendment to our "
8352 "Constitution: \"Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of "
8353 "speech.\" So when Congress is being asked to pass laws that would "
8354 "\"abridge\" the freedom of speech, it should ask— "
8355 "carefully—whether such regulation is justified."
8359 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8360 #: freeculture.xml:6338
8362 "My argument just now, however, has nothing to do with whether the changes "
8363 "that are being pushed by the copyright warriors are \"justified.\" My "
8364 "argument is about their effect. For before we get to the question of "
8365 "justification, a hard question that depends a great deal upon your values, "
8366 "we should first ask whether we understand the effect of the changes the "
8367 "content industry wants."
8370 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8371 #: freeculture.xml:6347
8372 msgid "Here's the metaphor that will capture the argument to follow."
8375 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
8376 #: freeculture.xml:6350
8380 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
8381 #: freeculture.xml:6358
8382 msgid "Müller, Paul Hermann"
8385 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8386 #: freeculture.xml:6353
8388 "In 1873, the chemical DDT was first synthesized. In 1948, Swiss chemist Paul "
8389 "Hermann Müller won the Nobel Prize for his work demonstrating the "
8390 "insecticidal properties of DDT. By the 1950s, the insecticide was widely "
8391 "used around the world to kill disease-carrying pests. It was also used to "
8392 "increase farm production. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
8395 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8396 #: freeculture.xml:6361
8398 "No one doubts that killing disease-carrying pests or increasing crop "
8399 "production is a good thing. No one doubts that the work of Müller was "
8400 "important and valuable and probably saved lives, possibly millions."
8403 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
8404 #: freeculture.xml:6365 freeculture.xml:6371
8405 msgid "Carson, Rachel"
8408 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
8409 #: freeculture.xml:6372
8410 msgid "Silent Sprint (Carson)"
8413 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8414 #: freeculture.xml:6367
8416 "But in 1962, Rachel Carson published <citetitle>Silent Spring</citetitle>, "
8417 "which argued that DDT, whatever its primary benefits, was also having "
8418 "unintended environmental consequences. Birds were losing the ability to "
8419 "reproduce. Whole chains of the ecology were being destroyed. <placeholder "
8420 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
8423 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8424 #: freeculture.xml:6375
8426 "No one set out to destroy the environment. Paul Müller certainly did not aim "
8427 "to harm any birds. But the effort to solve one set of problems produced "
8428 "another set which, in the view of some, was far worse than the problems that "
8429 "were originally attacked. Or more accurately, the problems DDT caused were "
8430 "worse than the problems it solved, at least when considering the other, more "
8431 "environmentally friendly ways to solve the problems that DDT was meant to "
8436 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
8437 #: freeculture.xml:6388
8439 "See, for example, James Boyle, \"A Politics of Intellectual Property: "
8440 "Environmentalism for the Net?\" <citetitle>Duke Law Journal</citetitle> 47 "
8445 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8446 #: freeculture.xml:6384
8448 "It is to this image precisely that Duke University law professor James Boyle "
8449 "appeals when he argues that we need an \"environmentalism\" for "
8450 "culture.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> His point, and the point I "
8451 "want to develop in the balance of this chapter, is not that the aims of "
8452 "copyright are flawed. Or that authors should not be paid for their work. Or "
8453 "that music should be given away \"for free.\" The point is that some of the "
8454 "ways in which we might protect authors will have unintended consequences for "
8455 "the cultural environment, much like DDT had for the natural environment. And "
8456 "just as criticism of DDT is not an endorsement of malaria or an attack on "
8457 "farmers, so, too, is criticism of one particular set of regulations "
8458 "protecting copyright not an endorsement of anarchy or an attack on authors. "
8459 "It is an environment of creativity that we seek, and we should be aware of "
8460 "our actions' effects on the environment."
8463 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8464 #: freeculture.xml:6405
8466 "My argument, in the balance of this chapter, tries to map exactly this "
8467 "effect. No doubt the technology of the Internet has had a dramatic effect on "
8468 "the ability of copyright owners to protect their content. But there should "
8469 "also be little doubt that when you add together the changes in copyright law "
8470 "over time, plus the change in technology that the Internet is undergoing "
8471 "just now, the net effect of these changes will not be only that copyrighted "
8472 "work is effectively protected. Also, and generally missed, the net effect of "
8473 "this massive increase in protection will be devastating to the environment "
8477 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8478 #: freeculture.xml:6416
8480 "In a line: To kill a gnat, we are spraying DDT with consequences for free "
8481 "culture that will be far more devastating than that this gnat will be lost."
8484 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
8485 #: freeculture.xml:6423
8489 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8490 #: freeculture.xml:6425
8492 "America copied English copyright law. Actually, we copied and improved "
8493 "English copyright law. Our Constitution makes the purpose of \"creative "
8494 "property\" rights clear; its express limitations reinforce the English aim "
8495 "to avoid overly powerful publishers."
8498 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8499 #: freeculture.xml:6431
8501 "The power to establish \"creative property\" rights is granted to Congress "
8502 "in a way that, for our Constitution, at least, is very odd. Article I, "
8503 "section 8, clause 8 of our Constitution states that:"
8507 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8508 #: freeculture.xml:6436
8510 "Congress has the power to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, "
8511 "by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right "
8512 "to their respective Writings and Discoveries. We can call this the "
8513 "\"Progress Clause,\" for notice what this clause does not say. It does not "
8514 "say Congress has the power to grant \"creative property rights.\" It says "
8515 "that Congress has the power <emphasis>to promote progress</emphasis>. The "
8516 "grant of power is its purpose, and its purpose is a public one, not the "
8517 "purpose of enriching publishers, nor even primarily the purpose of rewarding "
8521 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8522 #: freeculture.xml:6449
8524 "The Progress Clause expressly limits the term of copyrights. As we saw in "
8525 "chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"founders\"/>, the "
8526 "English limited the term of copyright so as to assure that a few would not "
8527 "exercise disproportionate control over culture by exercising "
8528 "disproportionate control over publishing. We can assume the framers followed "
8529 "the English for a similar purpose. Indeed, unlike the English, the framers "
8530 "reinforced that objective, by requiring that copyrights extend \"to "
8534 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8535 #: freeculture.xml:6459
8537 "The design of the Progress Clause reflects something about the "
8538 "Constitution's design in general. To avoid a problem, the framers built "
8539 "structure. To prevent the concentrated power of publishers, they built a "
8540 "structure that kept copyrights away from publishers and kept them short. To "
8541 "prevent the concentrated power of a church, they banned the federal "
8542 "government from establishing a church. To prevent concentrating power in the "
8543 "federal government, they built structures to reinforce the power of the "
8544 "states—including the Senate, whose members were at the time selected "
8545 "by the states, and an electoral college, also selected by the states, to "
8546 "select the president. In each case, a <emphasis>structure</emphasis> built "
8547 "checks and balances into the constitutional frame, structured to prevent "
8548 "otherwise inevitable concentrations of power."
8551 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8552 #: freeculture.xml:6474
8554 "I doubt the framers would recognize the regulation we call \"copyright\" "
8555 "today. The scope of that regulation is far beyond anything they ever "
8556 "considered. To begin to understand what they did, we need to put our "
8557 "\"copyright\" in context: We need to see how it has changed in the 210 years "
8558 "since they first struck its design."
8562 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8563 #: freeculture.xml:6481
8565 "Some of these changes come from the law: some in light of changes in "
8566 "technology, and some in light of changes in technology given a particular "
8567 "concentration of market power. In terms of our model, we started here:"
8570 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8571 #: freeculture.xml:6492
8572 msgid "We will end here:"
8575 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
8576 #: freeculture.xml:6495
8577 msgid ""Copyright" today."
8580 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
8581 #: freeculture.xml:6496
8582 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1442.png\"></graphic>"
8586 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8587 #: freeculture.xml:6499
8588 msgid "Let me explain how."
8591 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
8592 #: freeculture.xml:6504
8593 msgid "Law: Duration"
8596 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
8597 #: freeculture.xml:6520
8598 msgid "Crosskey, William W."
8601 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
8602 #: freeculture.xml:6514
8604 "William W. Crosskey, <citetitle>Politics and the Constitution in the History "
8605 "of the United States</citetitle> (London: Cambridge University Press, 1953), "
8606 "vol. 1, 485–86: \"extinguish[ing], by plain implication of `the "
8607 "supreme Law of the Land,' <emphasis>the perpetual rights which authors had, "
8608 "or were supposed by some to have, under the Common Law</emphasis>\" "
8609 "(emphasis added). <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
8612 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8613 #: freeculture.xml:6506
8615 "When the first Congress enacted laws to protect creative property, it faced "
8616 "the same uncertainty about the status of creative property that the English "
8617 "had confronted in 1774. Many states had passed laws protecting creative "
8618 "property, and some believed that these laws simply supplemented common law "
8619 "rights that already protected creative authorship.<placeholder "
8620 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> This meant that there was no guaranteed public "
8621 "domain in the United States in 1790. If copyrights were protected by the "
8622 "common law, then there was no simple way to know whether a work published in "
8623 "the United States was controlled or free. Just as in England, this lingering "
8624 "uncertainty would make it hard for publishers to rely upon a public domain "
8625 "to reprint and distribute works."
8628 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8629 #: freeculture.xml:6530
8631 "That uncertainty ended after Congress passed legislation granting "
8632 "copyrights. Because federal law overrides any contrary state law, federal "
8633 "protections for copyrighted works displaced any state law protections. Just "
8634 "as in England the Statute of Anne eventually meant that the copyrights for "
8635 "all English works expired, a federal statute meant that any state copyrights "
8639 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8640 #: freeculture.xml:6538
8642 "In 1790, Congress enacted the first copyright law. It created a federal "
8643 "copyright and secured that copyright for fourteen years. If the author was "
8644 "alive at the end of that fourteen years, then he could opt to renew the "
8645 "copyright for another fourteen years. If he did not renew the copyright, his "
8646 "work passed into the public domain."
8650 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
8651 #: freeculture.xml:6553
8653 "Although 13,000 titles were published in the United States from 1790 to "
8654 "1799, only 556 copyright registrations were filed; John Tebbel, <citetitle>A "
8655 "History of Book Publishing in the United States</citetitle>, vol. 1, "
8656 "<citetitle>The Creation of an Industry, 1630–1865</citetitle> (New "
8657 "York: Bowker, 1972), 141. Of the 21,000 imprints recorded before 1790, only "
8658 "twelve were copyrighted under the 1790 act; William J. Maher, "
8659 "<citetitle>Copyright Term, Retrospective Extension and the Copyright Law of "
8660 "1790 in Historical Context</citetitle>, 7–10 (2002), available at "
8661 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #25</ulink>. Thus, the "
8662 "overwhelming majority of works fell immediately into the public domain. Even "
8663 "those works that were copyrighted fell into the public domain quickly, "
8664 "because the term of copyright was short. The initial term of copyright was "
8665 "fourteen years, with the option of renewal for an additional fourteen "
8666 "years. Copyright Act of May 31, 1790, §1, 1 stat. 124."
8669 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8670 #: freeculture.xml:6545
8672 "While there were many works created in the United States in the first ten "
8673 "years of the Republic, only 5 percent of the works were actually registered "
8674 "under the federal copyright regime. Of all the work created in the United "
8675 "States both before 1790 and from 1790 through 1800, 95 percent immediately "
8676 "passed into the public domain; the balance would pass into the pubic domain "
8677 "within twenty-eight years at most, and more likely within fourteen "
8678 "years.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
8682 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8683 #: freeculture.xml:6569
8685 "This system of renewal was a crucial part of the American system of "
8686 "copyright. It assured that the maximum terms of copyright would be granted "
8687 "only for works where they were wanted. After the initial term of fourteen "
8688 "years, if it wasn't worth it to an author to renew his copyright, then it "
8689 "wasn't worth it to society to insist on the copyright, either."
8693 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
8694 #: freeculture.xml:6584
8696 "Few copyright holders ever chose to renew their copyrights. For instance, of "
8697 "the 25,006 copyrights registered in 1883, only 894 were renewed in 1910. For "
8698 "a year-by-year analysis of copyright renewal rates, see Barbara A. Ringer, "
8699 "\"Study No. 31: Renewal of Copyright,\" <citetitle>Studies on "
8700 "Copyright</citetitle>, vol. 1 (New York: Practicing Law Institute, 1963), "
8701 "618. For a more recent and comprehensive analysis, see William M. Landes and "
8702 "Richard A. Posner, \"Indefinitely Renewable Copyright,\" "
8703 "<citetitle>University of Chicago Law Review</citetitle> 70 (2003): 471, "
8704 "498–501, and accompanying figures."
8707 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8708 #: freeculture.xml:6578
8710 "Fourteen years may not seem long to us, but for the vast majority of "
8711 "copyright owners at that time, it was long enough: Only a small minority of "
8712 "them renewed their copyright after fourteen years; the balance allowed their "
8713 "work to pass into the public domain.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
8718 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
8719 #: freeculture.xml:6599
8720 msgid "See Ringer, ch. 9, n. 2."
8723 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8724 #: freeculture.xml:6595
8726 "Even today, this structure would make sense. Most creative work has an "
8727 "actual commercial life of just a couple of years. Most books fall out of "
8728 "print after one year.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> When that "
8729 "happens, the used books are traded free of copyright regulation. Thus the "
8730 "books are no longer <emphasis>effectively</emphasis> controlled by "
8731 "copyright. The only practical commercial use of the books at that time is to "
8732 "sell the books as used books; that use—because it does not involve "
8733 "publication—is effectively free."
8736 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8737 #: freeculture.xml:6607
8739 "In the first hundred years of the Republic, the term of copyright was "
8740 "changed once. In 1831, the term was increased from a maximum of 28 years to "
8741 "a maximum of 42 by increasing the initial term of copyright from 14 years to "
8742 "28 years. In the next fifty years of the Republic, the term increased once "
8743 "again. In 1909, Congress extended the renewal term of 14 years to 28 years, "
8744 "setting a maximum term of 56 years."
8747 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8748 #: freeculture.xml:6615
8750 "Then, beginning in 1962, Congress started a practice that has defined "
8751 "copyright law since. Eleven times in the last forty years, Congress has "
8752 "extended the terms of existing copyrights; twice in those forty years, "
8753 "Congress extended the term of future copyrights. Initially, the extensions "
8754 "of existing copyrights were short, a mere one to two years. In 1976, "
8755 "Congress extended all existing copyrights by nineteen years. And in 1998, "
8756 "in the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, Congress extended the term "
8757 "of existing and future copyrights by twenty years."
8761 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8762 #: freeculture.xml:6625
8764 "The effect of these extensions is simply to toll, or delay, the passing of "
8765 "works into the public domain. This latest extension means that the public "
8766 "domain will have been tolled for thirty-nine out of fifty-five years, or 70 "
8767 "percent of the time since 1962. Thus, in the twenty years after the Sonny "
8768 "Bono Act, while one million patents will pass into the public domain, zero "
8769 "copyrights will pass into the public domain by virtue of the expiration of a "
8773 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8774 #: freeculture.xml:6636
8776 "The effect of these extensions has been exacerbated by another, "
8777 "little-noticed change in the copyright law. Remember I said that the framers "
8778 "established a two-part copyright regime, requiring a copyright owner to "
8779 "renew his copyright after an initial term. The requirement of renewal meant "
8780 "that works that no longer needed copyright protection would pass more "
8781 "quickly into the public domain. The works remaining under protection would "
8782 "be those that had some continuing commercial value."
8785 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8786 #: freeculture.xml:6646
8788 "The United States abandoned this sensible system in 1976. For all works "
8789 "created after 1978, there was only one copyright term—the maximum "
8790 "term. For \"natural\" authors, that term was life plus fifty years. For "
8791 "corporations, the term was seventy-five years. Then, in 1992, Congress "
8792 "abandoned the renewal requirement for all works created before 1978. All "
8793 "works still under copyright would be accorded the maximum term then "
8794 "available. After the Sonny Bono Act, that term was ninety-five years."
8797 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8798 #: freeculture.xml:6656
8800 "This change meant that American law no longer had an automatic way to assure "
8801 "that works that were no longer exploited passed into the public domain. And "
8802 "indeed, after these changes, it is unclear whether it is even possible to "
8803 "put works into the public domain. The public domain is orphaned by these "
8804 "changes in copyright law. Despite the requirement that terms be \"limited,\" "
8805 "we have no evidence that anything will limit them."
8809 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
8810 #: freeculture.xml:6673
8812 "These statistics are understated. Between the years 1910 and 1962 (the first "
8813 "year the renewal term was extended), the average term was never more than "
8814 "thirty-two years, and averaged thirty years. See Landes and Posner, "
8815 "\"Indefinitely Renewable Copyright,\" loc. cit."
8818 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8819 #: freeculture.xml:6665
8821 "The effect of these changes on the average duration of copyright is "
8822 "dramatic. In 1973, more than 85 percent of copyright owners failed to renew "
8823 "their copyright. That meant that the average term of copyright in 1973 was "
8824 "just 32.2 years. Because of the elimination of the renewal requirement, the "
8825 "average term of copyright is now the maximum term. In thirty years, then, "
8826 "the average term has tripled, from 32.2 years to 95 years.<placeholder "
8827 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
8830 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
8831 #: freeculture.xml:6682
8835 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8836 #: freeculture.xml:6684
8838 "The \"scope\" of a copyright is the range of rights granted by the law. The "
8839 "scope of American copyright has changed dramatically. Those changes are not "
8840 "necessarily bad. But we should understand the extent of the changes if we're "
8841 "to keep this debate in context."
8844 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8845 #: freeculture.xml:6690
8847 "In 1790, that scope was very narrow. Copyright covered only \"maps, charts, "
8848 "and books.\" That means it didn't cover, for example, music or "
8849 "architecture. More significantly, the right granted by a copyright gave the "
8850 "author the exclusive right to \"publish\" copyrighted works. That means "
8851 "someone else violated the copyright only if he republished the work without "
8852 "the copyright owner's permission. Finally, the right granted by a copyright "
8853 "was an exclusive right to that particular book. The right did not extend to "
8854 "what lawyers call \"derivative works.\" It would not, therefore, interfere "
8855 "with the right of someone other than the author to translate a copyrighted "
8856 "book, or to adapt the story to a different form (such as a drama based on a "
8860 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8861 #: freeculture.xml:6703
8863 "This, too, has changed dramatically. While the contours of copyright today "
8864 "are extremely hard to describe simply, in general terms, the right covers "
8865 "practically any creative work that is reduced to a tangible form. It covers "
8866 "music as well as architecture, drama as well as computer programs. It gives "
8867 "the copyright owner of that creative work not only the exclusive right to "
8868 "\"publish\" the work, but also the exclusive right of control over any "
8869 "\"copies\" of that work. And most significant for our purposes here, the "
8870 "right gives the copyright owner control over not only his or her particular "
8871 "work, but also any \"derivative work\" that might grow out of the original "
8872 "work. In this way, the right covers more creative work, protects the "
8873 "creative work more broadly, and protects works that are based in a "
8874 "significant way on the initial creative work."
8878 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8879 #: freeculture.xml:6718
8881 "At the same time that the scope of copyright has expanded, procedural "
8882 "limitations on the right have been relaxed. I've already described the "
8883 "complete removal of the renewal requirement in 1992. In addition to the "
8884 "renewal requirement, for most of the history of American copyright law, "
8885 "there was a requirement that a work be registered before it could receive "
8886 "the protection of a copyright. There was also a requirement that any "
8887 "copyrighted work be marked either with that famous © or the word "
8888 "<emphasis>copyright</emphasis>. And for most of the history of American "
8889 "copyright law, there was a requirement that works be deposited with the "
8890 "government before a copyright could be secured."
8893 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8894 #: freeculture.xml:6732
8896 "The reason for the registration requirement was the sensible understanding "
8897 "that for most works, no copyright was required. Again, in the first ten "
8898 "years of the Republic, 95 percent of works eligible for copyright were never "
8899 "copyrighted. Thus, the rule reflected the norm: Most works apparently didn't "
8900 "need copyright, so registration narrowed the regulation of the law to the "
8901 "few that did. The same reasoning justified the requirement that a work be "
8902 "marked as copyrighted—that way it was easy to know whether a copyright "
8903 "was being claimed. The requirement that works be deposited was to assure "
8904 "that after the copyright expired, there would be a copy of the work "
8905 "somewhere so that it could be copied by others without locating the original "
8909 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8910 #: freeculture.xml:6746
8912 "All of these \"formalities\" were abolished in the American system when we "
8913 "decided to follow European copyright law. There is no requirement that you "
8914 "register a work to get a copyright; the copyright now is automatic; the "
8915 "copyright exists whether or not you mark your work with a ©; and the "
8916 "copyright exists whether or not you actually make a copy available for "
8920 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8921 #: freeculture.xml:6754
8922 msgid "Consider a practical example to understand the scope of these differences."
8926 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
8927 #: freeculture.xml:6765
8929 "See Thomas Bender and David Sampliner, \"Poets, Pirates, and the Creation of "
8930 "American Literature,\" 29 <citetitle>New York University Journal of "
8931 "International Law and Politics</citetitle> 255 (1997), and James Gilraeth, "
8932 "ed., Federal Copyright Records, 1790–1800 (U.S. G.P.O., 1987)."
8935 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8936 #: freeculture.xml:6758
8938 "If, in 1790, you wrote a book and you were one of the 5 percent who actually "
8939 "copyrighted that book, then the copyright law protected you against another "
8940 "publisher's taking your book and republishing it without your "
8941 "permission. The aim of the act was to regulate publishers so as to prevent "
8942 "that kind of unfair competition. In 1790, there were 174 publishers in the "
8943 "United States.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The Copyright Act "
8944 "was thus a tiny regulation of a tiny proportion of a tiny part of the "
8945 "creative market in the United States—publishers."
8949 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8950 #: freeculture.xml:6777
8952 "The act left other creators totally unregulated. If I copied your poem by "
8953 "hand, over and over again, as a way to learn it by heart, my act was totally "
8954 "unregulated by the 1790 act. If I took your novel and made a play based upon "
8955 "it, or if I translated it or abridged it, none of those activities were "
8956 "regulated by the original copyright act. These creative activities remained "
8957 "free, while the activities of publishers were restrained."
8960 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8961 #: freeculture.xml:6786
8963 "Today the story is very different: If you write a book, your book is "
8964 "automatically protected. Indeed, not just your book. Every e-mail, every "
8965 "note to your spouse, every doodle, <emphasis>every</emphasis> creative act "
8966 "that's reduced to a tangible form—all of this is automatically "
8967 "copyrighted. There is no need to register or mark your work. The protection "
8968 "follows the creation, not the steps you take to protect it."
8971 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8972 #: freeculture.xml:6795
8974 "That protection gives you the right (subject to a narrow range of fair use "
8975 "exceptions) to control how others copy the work, whether they copy it to "
8976 "republish it or to share an excerpt."
8979 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8980 #: freeculture.xml:6800
8982 "That much is the obvious part. Any system of copyright would control "
8983 "competing publishing. But there's a second part to the copyright of today "
8984 "that is not at all obvious. This is the protection of \"derivative rights.\" "
8985 "If you write a book, no one can make a movie out of your book without "
8986 "permission. No one can translate it without permission. CliffsNotes can't "
8987 "make an abridgment unless permission is granted. All of these derivative "
8988 "uses of your original work are controlled by the copyright holder. The "
8989 "copyright, in other words, is now not just an exclusive right to your "
8990 "writings, but an exclusive right to your writings and a large proportion of "
8991 "the writings inspired by them."
8994 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8995 #: freeculture.xml:6814
8997 "It is this derivative right that would seem most bizarre to our framers, "
8998 "though it has become second nature to us. Initially, this expansion was "
8999 "created to deal with obvious evasions of a narrower copyright. If I write a "
9000 "book, can you change one word and then claim a copyright in a new and "
9001 "different book? Obviously that would make a joke of the copyright, so the "
9002 "law was properly expanded to include those slight modifications as well as "
9003 "the verbatim original work."
9006 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9007 #: freeculture.xml:6836
9009 "Jonathan Zittrain, \"The Copyright Cage,\" <citetitle>Legal "
9010 "Affairs</citetitle>, July/August 2003, available at <ulink "
9011 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #26</ulink>. <placeholder "
9012 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
9015 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9016 #: freeculture.xml:6826
9018 "In preventing that joke, the law created an astonishing power within a free "
9019 "culture—at least, it's astonishing when you understand that the law "
9020 "applies not just to the commercial publisher but to anyone with a "
9021 "computer. I understand the wrong in duplicating and selling someone else's "
9022 "work. But whatever <emphasis>that</emphasis> wrong is, transforming someone "
9023 "else's work is a different wrong. Some view transformation as no wrong at "
9024 "all—they believe that our law, as the framers penned it, should not "
9025 "protect derivative rights at all.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
9026 "Whether or not you go that far, it seems plain that whatever wrong is "
9027 "involved is fundamentally different from the wrong of direct piracy."
9031 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9032 #: freeculture.xml:6851
9034 "Professor Rubenfeld has presented a powerful constitutional argument about "
9035 "the difference that copyright law should draw (from the perspective of the "
9036 "First Amendment) between mere \"copies\" and derivative works. See Jed "
9037 "Rubenfeld, \"The Freedom of Imagination: Copyright's Constitutionality,\" "
9038 "<citetitle>Yale Law Journal</citetitle> 112 (2002): 1–60 (see "
9039 "especially pp. 53–59)."
9042 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9043 #: freeculture.xml:6846
9045 "Yet copyright law treats these two different wrongs in the same way. I can "
9046 "go to court and get an injunction against your pirating my book. I can go to "
9047 "court and get an injunction against your transformative use of my "
9048 "book.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> These two different uses of "
9049 "my creative work are treated the same."
9052 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9053 #: freeculture.xml:6862
9055 "This again may seem right to you. If I wrote a book, then why should you be "
9056 "able to write a movie that takes my story and makes money from it without "
9057 "paying me or crediting me? Or if Disney creates a creature called \"Mickey "
9058 "Mouse,\" why should you be able to make Mickey Mouse toys and be the one to "
9059 "trade on the value that Disney originally created?"
9062 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9063 #: freeculture.xml:6870
9065 "These are good arguments, and, in general, my point is not that the "
9066 "derivative right is unjustified. My aim just now is much narrower: simply to "
9067 "make clear that this expansion is a significant change from the rights "
9068 "originally granted."
9071 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
9072 #: freeculture.xml:6877
9073 msgid "Law and Architecture: Reach"
9077 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9078 #: freeculture.xml:6884
9080 "This is a simplification of the law, but not much of one. The law certainly "
9081 "regulates more than \"copies\"—a public performance of a copyrighted "
9082 "song, for example, is regulated even though performance per se doesn't make "
9083 "a copy; 17 <citetitle>United States Code</citetitle>, section 106(4). And it "
9084 "certainly sometimes doesn't regulate a \"copy\"; 17 <citetitle>United States "
9085 "Code</citetitle>, section 112(a). But the presumption under the existing law "
9086 "(which regulates \"copies;\" 17 <citetitle>United States Code</citetitle>, "
9087 "section 102) is that if there is a copy, there is a right."
9090 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9091 #: freeculture.xml:6879
9093 "Whereas originally the law regulated only publishers, the change in "
9094 "copyright's scope means that the law today regulates publishers, users, and "
9095 "authors. It regulates them because all three are capable of making copies, "
9096 "and the core of the regulation of copyright law is copies.<placeholder "
9097 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
9101 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9102 #: freeculture.xml:6896
9104 "\"Copies.\" That certainly sounds like the obvious thing for "
9105 "<emphasis>copy</emphasis>right law to regulate. But as with Jack Valenti's "
9106 "argument at the start of this chapter, that \"creative property\" deserves "
9107 "the \"same rights\" as all other property, it is the "
9108 "<emphasis>obvious</emphasis> that we need to be most careful about. For "
9109 "while it may be obvious that in the world before the Internet, copies were "
9110 "the obvious trigger for copyright law, upon reflection, it should be obvious "
9111 "that in the world with the Internet, copies should <emphasis>not</emphasis> "
9112 "be the trigger for copyright law. More precisely, they should not "
9113 "<emphasis>always</emphasis> be the trigger for copyright law."
9117 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9118 #: freeculture.xml:6914
9120 "Thus, my argument is not that in each place that copyright law extends, we "
9121 "should repeal it. It is instead that we should have a good argument for its "
9122 "extending where it does, and should not determine its reach on the basis of "
9123 "arbitrary and automatic changes caused by technology."
9126 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9127 #: freeculture.xml:6909
9129 "This is perhaps the central claim of this book, so let me take this very "
9130 "slowly so that the point is not easily missed. My claim is that the Internet "
9131 "should at least force us to rethink the conditions under which the law of "
9132 "copyright automatically applies,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
9133 "because it is clear that the current reach of copyright was never "
9134 "contemplated, much less chosen, by the legislators who enacted copyright "
9138 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9139 #: freeculture.xml:6925
9141 "We can see this point abstractly by beginning with this largely empty "
9145 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
9146 #: freeculture.xml:6929
9147 msgid "All potential uses of a book."
9150 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
9151 #: freeculture.xml:6930
9152 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1521.png\"></graphic>"
9156 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9157 #: freeculture.xml:6934
9159 "Think about a book in real space, and imagine this circle to represent all "
9160 "its potential <emphasis>uses</emphasis>. Most of these uses are unregulated "
9161 "by copyright law, because the uses don't create a copy. If you read a book, "
9162 "that act is not regulated by copyright law. If you give someone the book, "
9163 "that act is not regulated by copyright law. If you resell a book, that act "
9164 "is not regulated (copyright law expressly states that after the first sale "
9165 "of a book, the copyright owner can impose no further conditions on the "
9166 "disposition of the book). If you sleep on the book or use it to hold up a "
9167 "lamp or let your puppy chew it up, those acts are not regulated by copyright "
9168 "law, because those acts do not make a copy."
9171 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
9172 #: freeculture.xml:6947
9173 msgid "Examples of unregulated uses of a book."
9176 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
9177 #: freeculture.xml:6948
9178 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1531.png\"></graphic>"
9181 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9182 #: freeculture.xml:6951
9184 "Obviously, however, some uses of a copyrighted book are regulated by "
9185 "copyright law. Republishing the book, for example, makes a copy. It is "
9186 "therefore regulated by copyright law. Indeed, this particular use stands at "
9187 "the core of this circle of possible uses of a copyrighted work. It is the "
9188 "paradigmatic use properly regulated by copyright regulation (see first "
9189 "diagram on next page)."
9192 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9193 #: freeculture.xml:6959
9195 "Finally, there is a tiny sliver of otherwise regulated copying uses that "
9196 "remain unregulated because the law considers these \"fair uses.\""
9199 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
9200 #: freeculture.xml:6964
9202 "Republishing stands at the core of this circle of possible uses of a "
9206 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
9207 #: freeculture.xml:6965
9208 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1541.png\"></graphic>"
9211 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9212 #: freeculture.xml:6968
9214 "These are uses that themselves involve copying, but which the law treats as "
9215 "unregulated because public policy demands that they remain unregulated. You "
9216 "are free to quote from this book, even in a review that is quite negative, "
9217 "without my permission, even though that quoting makes a copy. That copy "
9218 "would ordinarily give the copyright owner the exclusive right to say whether "
9219 "the copy is allowed or not, but the law denies the owner any exclusive right "
9220 "over such \"fair uses\" for public policy (and possibly First Amendment) "
9224 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
9225 #: freeculture.xml:6978
9226 msgid "Unregulated copying considered "fair uses.""
9229 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
9230 #: freeculture.xml:6979
9231 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1542.png\"></graphic>"
9234 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
9235 #: freeculture.xml:6983
9237 "Uses that before were presumptively unregulated are now presumptively "
9241 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
9242 #: freeculture.xml:6984
9243 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1551.png\"></graphic>"
9247 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9248 #: freeculture.xml:6988
9250 "In real space, then, the possible uses of a book are divided into three "
9251 "sorts: (1) unregulated uses, (2) regulated uses, and (3) regulated uses that "
9252 "are nonetheless deemed \"fair\" regardless of the copyright owner's views."
9256 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9257 #: freeculture.xml:6996
9259 "I don't mean \"nature\" in the sense that it couldn't be different, but "
9260 "rather that its present instantiation entails a copy. Optical networks need "
9261 "not make copies of content they transmit, and a digital network could be "
9262 "designed to delete anything it copies so that the same number of copies "
9266 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9267 #: freeculture.xml:6993
9269 "Enter the Internet—a distributed, digital network where every use of a "
9270 "copyrighted work produces a copy.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
9271 "And because of this single, arbitrary feature of the design of a digital "
9272 "network, the scope of category 1 changes dramatically. Uses that before were "
9273 "presumptively unregulated are now presumptively regulated. No longer is "
9274 "there a set of presumptively unregulated uses that define a freedom "
9275 "associated with a copyrighted work. Instead, each use is now subject to the "
9276 "copyright, because each use also makes a copy—category 1 gets sucked "
9277 "into category 2. And those who would defend the unregulated uses of "
9278 "copyrighted work must look exclusively to category 3, fair uses, to bear the "
9279 "burden of this shift."
9283 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9284 #: freeculture.xml:7014
9286 "So let's be very specific to make this general point clear. Before the "
9287 "Internet, if you purchased a book and read it ten times, there would be no "
9288 "plausible <emphasis>copyright</emphasis>-related argument that the copyright "
9289 "owner could make to control that use of her book. Copyright law would have "
9290 "nothing to say about whether you read the book once, ten times, or every "
9291 "night before you went to bed. None of those instances of "
9292 "use—reading— could be regulated by copyright law because none of "
9293 "those uses produced a copy."
9296 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9297 #: freeculture.xml:7026
9299 "But the same book as an e-book is effectively governed by a different set of "
9300 "rules. Now if the copyright owner says you may read the book only once or "
9301 "only once a month, then <emphasis>copyright law</emphasis> would aid the "
9302 "copyright owner in exercising this degree of control, because of the "
9303 "accidental feature of copyright law that triggers its application upon there "
9304 "being a copy. Now if you read the book ten times and the license says you "
9305 "may read it only five times, then whenever you read the book (or any portion "
9306 "of it) beyond the fifth time, you are making a copy of the book contrary to "
9307 "the copyright owner's wish."
9310 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9311 #: freeculture.xml:7038
9313 "There are some people who think this makes perfect sense. My aim just now is "
9314 "not to argue about whether it makes sense or not. My aim is only to make "
9315 "clear the change. Once you see this point, a few other points also become "
9319 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9320 #: freeculture.xml:7044
9322 "First, making category 1 disappear is not anything any policy maker ever "
9323 "intended. Congress did not think through the collapse of the presumptively "
9324 "unregulated uses of copyrighted works. There is no evidence at all that "
9325 "policy makers had this idea in mind when they allowed our policy here to "
9326 "shift. Unregulated uses were an important part of free culture before the "
9330 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9331 #: freeculture.xml:7052
9333 "Second, this shift is especially troubling in the context of transformative "
9334 "uses of creative content. Again, we can all understand the wrong in "
9335 "commercial piracy. But the law now purports to regulate "
9336 "<emphasis>any</emphasis> transformation you make of creative work using a "
9337 "machine. \"Copy and paste\" and \"cut and paste\" become crimes. Tinkering "
9338 "with a story and releasing it to others exposes the tinkerer to at least a "
9339 "requirement of justification. However troubling the expansion with respect "
9340 "to copying a particular work, it is extraordinarily troubling with respect "
9341 "to transformative uses of creative work."
9345 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9346 #: freeculture.xml:7064
9348 "Third, this shift from category 1 to category 2 puts an extraordinary burden "
9349 "on category 3 (\"fair use\") that fair use never before had to bear. If a "
9350 "copyright owner now tried to control how many times I could read a book "
9351 "on-line, the natural response would be to argue that this is a violation of "
9352 "my fair use rights. But there has never been any litigation about whether I "
9353 "have a fair use right to read, because before the Internet, reading did not "
9354 "trigger the application of copyright law and hence the need for a fair use "
9355 "defense. The right to read was effectively protected before because reading "
9356 "was not regulated."
9359 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9360 #: freeculture.xml:7078
9362 "This point about fair use is totally ignored, even by advocates for free "
9363 "culture. We have been cornered into arguing that our rights depend upon fair "
9364 "use—never even addressing the earlier question about the expansion in "
9365 "effective regulation. A thin protection grounded in fair use makes sense "
9366 "when the vast majority of uses are <emphasis>unregulated</emphasis>. But "
9367 "when everything becomes presumptively regulated, then the protections of "
9368 "fair use are not enough."
9371 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9372 #: freeculture.xml:7088
9374 "The case of Video Pipeline is a good example. Video Pipeline was in the "
9375 "business of making \"trailer\" advertisements for movies available to video "
9376 "stores. The video stores displayed the trailers as a way to sell "
9377 "videos. Video Pipeline got the trailers from the film distributors, put the "
9378 "trailers on tape, and sold the tapes to the retail stores."
9381 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9382 #: freeculture.xml:7095
9384 "The company did this for about fifteen years. Then, in 1997, it began to "
9385 "think about the Internet as another way to distribute these previews. The "
9386 "idea was to expand their \"selling by sampling\" technique by giving on-line "
9387 "stores the same ability to enable \"browsing.\" Just as in a bookstore you "
9388 "can read a few pages of a book before you buy the book, so, too, you would "
9389 "be able to sample a bit from the movie on-line before you bought it."
9393 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9394 #: freeculture.xml:7104
9396 "In 1998, Video Pipeline informed Disney and other film distributors that it "
9397 "intended to distribute the trailers through the Internet (rather than "
9398 "sending the tapes) to distributors of their videos. Two years later, Disney "
9399 "told Video Pipeline to stop. The owner of Video Pipeline asked Disney to "
9400 "talk about the matter—he had built a business on distributing this "
9401 "content as a way to help sell Disney films; he had customers who depended "
9402 "upon his delivering this content. Disney would agree to talk only if Video "
9403 "Pipeline stopped the distribution immediately. Video Pipeline thought it "
9404 "was within their \"fair use\" rights to distribute the clips as they had. So "
9405 "they filed a lawsuit to ask the court to declare that these rights were in "
9406 "fact their rights."
9409 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9410 #: freeculture.xml:7119
9412 "Disney countersued—for $100 million in damages. Those damages were "
9413 "predicated upon a claim that Video Pipeline had \"willfully infringed\" on "
9414 "Disney's copyright. When a court makes a finding of willful infringement, it "
9415 "can award damages not on the basis of the actual harm to the copyright "
9416 "owner, but on the basis of an amount set in the statute. Because Video "
9417 "Pipeline had distributed seven hundred clips of Disney movies to enable "
9418 "video stores to sell copies of those movies, Disney was now suing Video "
9419 "Pipeline for $100 million."
9422 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9423 #: freeculture.xml:7129
9425 "Disney has the right to control its property, of course. But the video "
9426 "stores that were selling Disney's films also had some sort of right to be "
9427 "able to sell the films that they had bought from Disney. Disney's claim in "
9428 "court was that the stores were allowed to sell the films and they were "
9429 "permitted to list the titles of the films they were selling, but they were "
9430 "not allowed to show clips of the films as a way of selling them without "
9431 "Disney's permission."
9434 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9435 #: freeculture.xml:7138
9437 "Now, you might think this is a close case, and I think the courts would "
9438 "consider it a close case. My point here is to map the change that gives "
9439 "Disney this power. Before the Internet, Disney couldn't really control how "
9440 "people got access to their content. Once a video was in the marketplace, the "
9441 "\"first-sale doctrine\" would free the seller to use the video as he wished, "
9442 "including showing portions of it in order to engender sales of the entire "
9443 "movie video. But with the Internet, it becomes possible for Disney to "
9444 "centralize control over access to this content. Because each use of the "
9445 "Internet produces a copy, use on the Internet becomes subject to the "
9446 "copyright owner's control. The technology expands the scope of effective "
9447 "control, because the technology builds a copy into every transaction."
9451 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9452 #: freeculture.xml:7153
9454 "No doubt, a potential is not yet an abuse, and so the potential for control "
9455 "is not yet the abuse of control. Barnes & Noble has the right to say you "
9456 "can't touch a book in their store; property law gives them that right. But "
9457 "the market effectively protects against that abuse. If Barnes & Noble "
9458 "banned browsing, then consumers would choose other bookstores. Competition "
9459 "protects against the extremes. And it may well be (my argument so far does "
9460 "not even question this) that competition would prevent any similar danger "
9461 "when it comes to copyright. Sure, publishers exercising the rights that "
9462 "authors have assigned to them might try to regulate how many times you read "
9463 "a book, or try to stop you from sharing the book with anyone. But in a "
9464 "competitive market such as the book market, the dangers of this happening "
9468 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9469 #: freeculture.xml:7168
9471 "Again, my aim so far is simply to map the changes that this changed "
9472 "architecture enables. Enabling technology to enforce the control of "
9473 "copyright means that the control of copyright is no longer defined by "
9474 "balanced policy. The control of copyright is simply what private owners "
9475 "choose. In some contexts, at least, that fact is harmless. But in some "
9476 "contexts it is a recipe for disaster."
9479 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
9480 #: freeculture.xml:7177
9481 msgid "Architecture and Law: Force"
9484 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9485 #: freeculture.xml:7179
9487 "The disappearance of unregulated uses would be change enough, but a second "
9488 "important change brought about by the Internet magnifies its "
9489 "significance. This second change does not affect the reach of copyright "
9490 "regulation; it affects how such regulation is enforced."
9493 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9494 #: freeculture.xml:7185
9496 "In the world before digital technology, it was generally the law that "
9497 "controlled whether and how someone was regulated by copyright law. The law, "
9498 "meaning a court, meaning a judge: In the end, it was a human, trained in the "
9499 "tradition of the law and cognizant of the balances that tradition embraced, "
9500 "who said whether and how the law would restrict your freedom."
9503 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9504 #: freeculture.xml:7192
9508 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
9509 #: freeculture.xml:7194 freeculture.xml:7373
9510 msgid "Marx Brothers"
9514 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9515 #: freeculture.xml:7208
9517 "See David Lange, \"Recognizing the Public Domain,\" <citetitle>Law and "
9518 "Contemporary Problems</citetitle> 44 (1981): 172–73."
9521 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9522 #: freeculture.xml:7200
9524 "There's a famous story about a battle between the Marx Brothers and Warner "
9525 "Brothers. The Marxes intended to make a parody of "
9526 "<citetitle>Casablanca</citetitle>. Warner Brothers objected. They wrote a "
9527 "nasty letter to the Marxes, warning them that there would be serious legal "
9528 "consequences if they went forward with their plan.<placeholder "
9529 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
9532 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9533 #: freeculture.xml:7217
9535 "Ibid. See also Vaidhyanathan, <citetitle>Copyrights and "
9536 "Copywrongs</citetitle>, 1–3. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
9540 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9541 #: freeculture.xml:7213
9543 "This led the Marx Brothers to respond in kind. They warned Warner Brothers "
9544 "that the Marx Brothers \"were brothers long before you were.\"<placeholder "
9545 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The Marx Brothers therefore owned the word "
9546 "<citetitle>brothers</citetitle>, and if Warner Brothers insisted on trying "
9547 "to control <citetitle>Casablanca</citetitle>, then the Marx Brothers would "
9548 "insist on control over <citetitle>brothers</citetitle>."
9551 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9552 #: freeculture.xml:7227
9554 "An absurd and hollow threat, of course, because Warner Brothers, like the "
9555 "Marx Brothers, knew that no court would ever enforce such a silly "
9556 "claim. This extremism was irrelevant to the real freedoms anyone (including "
9557 "Warner Brothers) enjoyed."
9560 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9561 #: freeculture.xml:7233
9563 "On the Internet, however, there is no check on silly rules, because on the "
9564 "Internet, increasingly, rules are enforced not by a human but by a machine: "
9565 "Increasingly, the rules of copyright law, as interpreted by the copyright "
9566 "owner, get built into the technology that delivers copyrighted content. It "
9567 "is code, rather than law, that rules. And the problem with code regulations "
9568 "is that, unlike law, code has no shame. Code would not get the humor of the "
9569 "Marx Brothers. The consequence of that is not at all funny."
9572 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9573 #: freeculture.xml:7246
9574 msgid "Adobe eBook Reader"
9577 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9578 #: freeculture.xml:7249
9579 msgid "Consider the life of my Adobe eBook Reader."
9582 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9583 #: freeculture.xml:7252
9585 "An e-book is a book delivered in electronic form. An Adobe eBook is not a "
9586 "book that Adobe has published; Adobe simply produces the software that "
9587 "publishers use to deliver e-books. It provides the technology, and the "
9588 "publisher delivers the content by using the technology."
9591 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9592 #: freeculture.xml:7259
9593 msgid "On the next page is a picture of an old version of my Adobe eBook Reader."
9597 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9598 #: freeculture.xml:7263
9600 "As you can see, I have a small collection of e-books within this e-book "
9601 "library. Some of these books reproduce content that is in the public domain: "
9602 "<citetitle>Middlemarch</citetitle>, for example, is in the public domain. "
9603 "Some of them reproduce content that is not in the public domain: My own book "
9604 "<citetitle>The Future of Ideas</citetitle> is not yet within the public "
9605 "domain. Consider <citetitle>Middlemarch</citetitle> first. If you click on "
9606 "my e-book copy of <citetitle>Middlemarch</citetitle>, you'll see a fancy "
9607 "cover, and then a button at the bottom called Permissions."
9610 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
9611 #: freeculture.xml:7276
9612 msgid "Picture of an old version of Adobe eBook Reader"
9615 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
9616 #: freeculture.xml:7277
9617 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1611.png\"></graphic>"
9620 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9621 #: freeculture.xml:7280
9623 "If you click on the Permissions button, you'll see a list of the permissions "
9624 "that the publisher purports to grant with this book."
9627 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
9628 #: freeculture.xml:7284
9629 msgid "List of the permissions that the publisher purports to grant."
9632 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
9633 #: freeculture.xml:7285
9634 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1612.png\"></graphic>"
9638 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9639 #: freeculture.xml:7289
9641 "According to my eBook Reader, I have the permission to copy to the clipboard "
9642 "of the computer ten text selections every ten days. (So far, I've copied no "
9643 "text to the clipboard.) I also have the permission to print ten pages from "
9644 "the book every ten days. Lastly, I have the permission to use the Read Aloud "
9645 "button to hear <citetitle>Middlemarch</citetitle> read aloud through the "
9649 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
9650 #: freeculture.xml:7299
9654 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
9655 #: freeculture.xml:7300
9656 msgid "<citetitle>Politics</citetitle>, (Aristotle)"
9659 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9660 #: freeculture.xml:7297
9662 "Here's the e-book for another work in the public domain (including the "
9663 "translation): Aristotle's <citetitle>Politics</citetitle>. <placeholder "
9664 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
9667 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
9668 #: freeculture.xml:7303
9669 msgid "E-book of Aristotle;s "Politics""
9672 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
9673 #: freeculture.xml:7304
9674 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1621.png\"></graphic>"
9677 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9678 #: freeculture.xml:7307
9680 "According to its permissions, no printing or copying is permitted at "
9681 "all. But fortunately, you can use the Read Aloud button to hear the book."
9684 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
9685 #: freeculture.xml:7312
9686 msgid "List of the permissions for Aristotle;s "Politics"."
9689 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
9690 #: freeculture.xml:7313
9691 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1622.png\"></graphic>"
9694 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9695 #: freeculture.xml:7316
9697 "Finally (and most embarrassingly), here are the permissions for the original "
9698 "e-book version of my last book, <citetitle>The Future of Ideas</citetitle>:"
9701 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
9702 #: freeculture.xml:7322
9703 msgid "List of the permissions for "The Future of Ideas"."
9706 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
9707 #: freeculture.xml:7323
9708 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1631.png\"></graphic>"
9711 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9712 #: freeculture.xml:7326
9713 msgid "No copying, no printing, and don't you dare try to listen to this book!"
9717 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9718 #: freeculture.xml:7336
9720 "In principle, a contract might impose a requirement on me. I might, for "
9721 "example, buy a book from you that includes a contract that says I will read "
9722 "it only three times, or that I promise to read it three times. But that "
9723 "obligation (and the limits for creating that obligation) would come from the "
9724 "contract, not from copyright law, and the obligations of contract would not "
9725 "necessarily pass to anyone who subsequently acquired the book."
9728 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9729 #: freeculture.xml:7329
9731 "Now, the Adobe eBook Reader calls these controls \"permissions\"— as "
9732 "if the publisher has the power to control how you use these works. For "
9733 "works under copyright, the copyright owner certainly does have the "
9734 "power—up to the limits of the copyright law. But for work not under "
9735 "copyright, there is no such copyright power.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
9736 "id=\"0\"/> When my e-book of <citetitle>Middlemarch</citetitle> says I have "
9737 "the permission to copy only ten text selections into the memory every ten "
9738 "days, what that really means is that the eBook Reader has enabled the "
9739 "publisher to control how I use the book on my computer, far beyond the "
9740 "control that the law would enable."
9743 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9744 #: freeculture.xml:7351
9746 "The control comes instead from the code—from the technology within "
9747 "which the e-book \"lives.\" Though the e-book says that these are "
9748 "permissions, they are not the sort of \"permissions\" that most of us deal "
9749 "with. When a teenager gets \"permission\" to stay out till midnight, she "
9750 "knows (unless she's Cinderella) that she can stay out till 2 A.M., but will "
9751 "suffer a punishment if she's caught. But when the Adobe eBook Reader says I "
9752 "have the permission to make ten copies of the text into the computer's "
9753 "memory, that means that after I've made ten copies, the computer will not "
9754 "make any more. The same with the printing restrictions: After ten pages, the "
9755 "eBook Reader will not print any more pages. It's the same with the silly "
9756 "restriction that says that you can't use the Read Aloud button to read my "
9757 "book aloud—it's not that the company will sue you if you do; instead, "
9758 "if you push the Read Aloud button with my book, the machine simply won't "
9762 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9763 #: freeculture.xml:7369
9765 "These are <emphasis>controls</emphasis>, not permissions. Imagine a world "
9766 "where the Marx Brothers sold word processing software that, when you tried "
9767 "to type \"Warner Brothers,\" erased \"Brothers\" from the sentence. "
9768 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
9771 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9772 #: freeculture.xml:7376
9774 "This is the future of copyright law: not so much copyright "
9775 "<emphasis>law</emphasis> as copyright <emphasis>code</emphasis>. The "
9776 "controls over access to content will not be controls that are ratified by "
9777 "courts; the controls over access to content will be controls that are coded "
9778 "by programmers. And whereas the controls that are built into the law are "
9779 "always to be checked by a judge, the controls that are built into the "
9780 "technology have no similar built-in check."
9783 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9784 #: freeculture.xml:7385
9786 "How significant is this? Isn't it always possible to get around the controls "
9787 "built into the technology? Software used to be sold with technologies that "
9788 "limited the ability of users to copy the software, but those were trivial "
9789 "protections to defeat. Why won't it be trivial to defeat these protections "
9793 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9794 #: freeculture.xml:7392
9796 "We've only scratched the surface of this story. Return to the Adobe eBook "
9800 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
9801 #: freeculture.xml:7402
9802 msgid "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Carroll)"
9805 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9806 #: freeculture.xml:7396
9808 "Early in the life of the Adobe eBook Reader, Adobe suffered a public "
9809 "relations nightmare. Among the books that you could download for free on the "
9810 "Adobe site was a copy of <citetitle>Alice's Adventures in "
9811 "Wonderland</citetitle>. This wonderful book is in the public domain. Yet "
9812 "when you clicked on Permissions for that book, you got the following report: "
9813 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
9816 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
9817 #: freeculture.xml:7405
9818 msgid "List of the permissions for "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"."
9821 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
9822 #: freeculture.xml:7407
9823 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1641.png\"></graphic>"
9827 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9828 #: freeculture.xml:7411
9830 "Here was a public domain children's book that you were not allowed to copy, "
9831 "not allowed to lend, not allowed to give, and, as the \"permissions\" "
9832 "indicated, not allowed to \"read aloud\"!"
9835 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9836 #: freeculture.xml:7416
9838 "The public relations nightmare attached to that final permission. For the "
9839 "text did not say that you were not permitted to use the Read Aloud button; "
9840 "it said you did not have the permission to read the book aloud. That led "
9841 "some people to think that Adobe was restricting the right of parents, for "
9842 "example, to read the book to their children, which seemed, to say the least, "
9846 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9847 #: freeculture.xml:7424
9849 "Adobe responded quickly that it was absurd to think that it was trying to "
9850 "restrict the right to read a book aloud. Obviously it was only restricting "
9851 "the ability to use the Read Aloud button to have the book read aloud. But "
9852 "the question Adobe never did answer is this: Would Adobe thus agree that a "
9853 "consumer was free to use software to hack around the restrictions built into "
9854 "the eBook Reader? If some company (call it Elcomsoft) developed a program to "
9855 "disable the technological protection built into an Adobe eBook so that a "
9856 "blind person, say, could use a computer to read the book aloud, would Adobe "
9857 "agree that such a use of an eBook Reader was fair? Adobe didn't answer "
9858 "because the answer, however absurd it might seem, is no."
9861 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9862 #: freeculture.xml:7437
9864 "The point is not to blame Adobe. Indeed, Adobe is among the most innovative "
9865 "companies developing strategies to balance open access to content with "
9866 "incentives for companies to innovate. But Adobe's technology enables "
9867 "control, and Adobe has an incentive to defend this control. That incentive "
9868 "is understandable, yet what it creates is often crazy."
9871 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9872 #: freeculture.xml:7446
9874 "To see the point in a particularly absurd context, consider a favorite story "
9875 "of mine that makes the same point."
9878 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9879 #: freeculture.xml:7450
9880 msgid "Aibo robotic dog"
9883 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9884 #: freeculture.xml:7453
9886 "Consider the robotic dog made by Sony named \"Aibo.\" The Aibo learns "
9887 "tricks, cuddles, and follows you around. It eats only electricity and that "
9888 "doesn't leave that much of a mess (at least in your house)."
9892 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9893 #: freeculture.xml:7458
9895 "The Aibo is expensive and popular. Fans from around the world have set up "
9896 "clubs to trade stories. One fan in particular set up a Web site to enable "
9897 "information about the Aibo dog to be shared. This fan set up aibopet.com "
9898 "(and aibohack.com, but that resolves to the same site), and on that site he "
9899 "provided information about how to teach an Aibo to do tricks in addition to "
9900 "the ones Sony had taught it."
9903 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9904 #: freeculture.xml:7467
9906 "\"Teach\" here has a special meaning. Aibos are just cute computers. You "
9907 "teach a computer how to do something by programming it differently. So to "
9908 "say that aibopet.com was giving information about how to teach the dog to do "
9909 "new tricks is just to say that aibopet.com was giving information to users "
9910 "of the Aibo pet about how to hack their computer \"dog\" to make it do new "
9911 "tricks (thus, aibohack.com)."
9914 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9915 #: freeculture.xml:7475
9917 "If you're not a programmer or don't know many programmers, the word "
9918 "<citetitle>hack</citetitle> has a particularly unfriendly "
9919 "connotation. Nonprogrammers hack bushes or weeds. Nonprogrammers in horror "
9920 "movies do even worse. But to programmers, or coders, as I call them, "
9921 "<citetitle>hack</citetitle> is a much more positive "
9922 "term. <citetitle>Hack</citetitle> just means code that enables the program "
9923 "to do something it wasn't originally intended or enabled to do. If you buy a "
9924 "new printer for an old computer, you might find the old computer doesn't "
9925 "run, or \"drive,\" the printer. If you discovered that, you'd later be happy "
9926 "to discover a hack on the Net by someone who has written a driver to enable "
9927 "the computer to drive the printer you just bought."
9930 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9931 #: freeculture.xml:7487
9933 "Some hacks are easy. Some are unbelievably hard. Hackers as a community like "
9934 "to challenge themselves and others with increasingly difficult "
9935 "tasks. There's a certain respect that goes with the talent to hack "
9936 "well. There's a well-deserved respect that goes with the talent to hack "
9940 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9941 #: freeculture.xml:7494
9943 "The Aibo fan was displaying a bit of both when he hacked the program and "
9944 "offered to the world a bit of code that would enable the Aibo to dance "
9945 "jazz. The dog wasn't programmed to dance jazz. It was a clever bit of "
9946 "tinkering that turned the dog into a more talented creature than Sony had "
9951 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9952 #: freeculture.xml:7502
9954 "I've told this story in many contexts, both inside and outside the United "
9955 "States. Once I was asked by a puzzled member of the audience, is it "
9956 "permissible for a dog to dance jazz in the United States? We forget that "
9957 "stories about the backcountry still flow across much of the world. So let's "
9958 "just be clear before we continue: It's not a crime anywhere (anymore) to "
9959 "dance jazz. Nor is it a crime to teach your dog to dance jazz. Nor should it "
9960 "be a crime (though we don't have a lot to go on here) to teach your robot "
9961 "dog to dance jazz. Dancing jazz is a completely legal activity. One imagines "
9962 "that the owner of aibopet.com thought, <emphasis>What possible problem could "
9963 "there be with teaching a robot dog to dance?</emphasis>"
9966 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9967 #: freeculture.xml:7518
9969 "Let's put the dog to sleep for a minute, and turn to a pony show— not "
9970 "literally a pony show, but rather a paper that a Princeton academic named Ed "
9971 "Felten prepared for a conference. This Princeton academic is well known and "
9972 "respected. He was hired by the government in the Microsoft case to test "
9973 "Microsoft's claims about what could and could not be done with its own "
9974 "code. In that trial, he demonstrated both his brilliance and his "
9975 "coolness. Under heavy badgering by Microsoft lawyers, Ed Felten stood his "
9976 "ground. He was not about to be bullied into being silent about something he "
9980 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
9981 #: freeculture.xml:7541 freeculture.xml:9985
9982 msgid "Electronic Frontier Foundation"
9985 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9986 #: freeculture.xml:7531
9988 "See Pamela Samuelson, \"Anticircumvention Rules: Threat to Science,\" "
9989 "<citetitle>Science</citetitle> 293 (2001): 2028; Brendan I. Koerner, \"Play "
9990 "Dead: Sony Muzzles the Techies Who Teach a Robot Dog New Tricks,\" "
9991 "<citetitle>American Prospect</citetitle>, January 2002; \"Court Dismisses "
9992 "Computer Scientists' Challenge to DMCA,\" <citetitle>Intellectual Property "
9993 "Litigation Reporter</citetitle>, 11 December 2001; Bill Holland, \"Copyright "
9994 "Act Raising Free-Speech Concerns,\" <citetitle>Billboard</citetitle>, May "
9995 "2001; Janelle Brown, \"Is the RIAA Running Scared?\" Salon.com, April 2001; "
9996 "Electronic Frontier Foundation, \"Frequently Asked Questions about "
9997 "<citetitle>Felten and USENIX</citetitle> v. <citetitle>RIAA</citetitle> "
9998 "Legal Case,\" available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
9999 "#27</ulink>. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
10002 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10003 #: freeculture.xml:7529
10005 "But Felten's bravery was really tested in April 2001.<placeholder "
10006 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> He and a group of colleagues were working on a "
10007 "paper to be submitted at conference. The paper was intended to describe the "
10008 "weakness in an encryption system being developed by the Secure Digital Music "
10009 "Initiative as a technique to control the distribution of music."
10012 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10013 #: freeculture.xml:7549
10015 "The SDMI coalition had as its goal a technology to enable content owners to "
10016 "exercise much better control over their content than the Internet, as it "
10017 "originally stood, granted them. Using encryption, SDMI hoped to develop a "
10018 "standard that would allow the content owner to say \"this music cannot be "
10019 "copied,\" and have a computer respect that command. The technology was to "
10020 "be part of a \"trusted system\" of control that would get content owners to "
10021 "trust the system of the Internet much more."
10024 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10025 #: freeculture.xml:7559
10027 "When SDMI thought it was close to a standard, it set up a competition. In "
10028 "exchange for providing contestants with the code to an SDMI-encrypted bit of "
10029 "content, contestants were to try to crack it and, if they did, report the "
10030 "problems to the consortium."
10034 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10035 #: freeculture.xml:7566
10037 "Felten and his team figured out the encryption system quickly. He and the "
10038 "team saw the weakness of this system as a type: Many encryption systems "
10039 "would suffer the same weakness, and Felten and his team thought it "
10040 "worthwhile to point this out to those who study encryption."
10043 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10044 #: freeculture.xml:7572
10046 "Let's review just what Felten was doing. Again, this is the United "
10047 "States. We have a principle of free speech. We have this principle not just "
10048 "because it is the law, but also because it is a really great idea. A "
10049 "strongly protected tradition of free speech is likely to encourage a wide "
10050 "range of criticism. That criticism is likely, in turn, to improve the "
10051 "systems or people or ideas criticized."
10054 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10055 #: freeculture.xml:7580
10057 "What Felten and his colleagues were doing was publishing a paper describing "
10058 "the weakness in a technology. They were not spreading free music, or "
10059 "building and deploying this technology. The paper was an academic essay, "
10060 "unintelligible to most people. But it clearly showed the weakness in the "
10061 "SDMI system, and why SDMI would not, as presently constituted, succeed."
10064 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10065 #: freeculture.xml:7588
10067 "What links these two, aibopet.com and Felten, is the letters they then "
10068 "received. Aibopet.com received a letter from Sony about the aibopet.com "
10069 "hack. Though a jazz-dancing dog is perfectly legal, Sony wrote:"
10072 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
10073 #: freeculture.xml:7595
10075 "Your site contains information providing the means to circumvent AIBO-ware's "
10076 "copy protection protocol constituting a violation of the anti-circumvention "
10077 "provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act."
10080 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10081 #: freeculture.xml:7601
10083 "And though an academic paper describing the weakness in a system of "
10084 "encryption should also be perfectly legal, Felten received a letter from an "
10085 "RIAA lawyer that read:"
10089 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
10090 #: freeculture.xml:7607
10092 "Any disclosure of information gained from participating in the Public "
10093 "Challenge would be outside the scope of activities permitted by the "
10094 "Agreement and could subject you and your research team to actions under the "
10095 "Digital Millennium Copyright Act (\"DMCA\")."
10098 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10099 #: freeculture.xml:7615
10101 "In both cases, this weirdly Orwellian law was invoked to control the spread "
10102 "of information. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act made spreading such "
10103 "information an offense."
10106 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10107 #: freeculture.xml:7620
10109 "The DMCA was enacted as a response to copyright owners' first fear about "
10110 "cyberspace. The fear was that copyright control was effectively dead; the "
10111 "response was to find technologies that might compensate. These new "
10112 "technologies would be copyright protection technologies— technologies "
10113 "to control the replication and distribution of copyrighted material. They "
10114 "were designed as <emphasis>code</emphasis> to modify the original "
10115 "<emphasis>code</emphasis> of the Internet, to reestablish some protection "
10116 "for copyright owners."
10119 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10120 #: freeculture.xml:7631
10122 "The DMCA was a bit of law intended to back up the protection of this code "
10123 "designed to protect copyrighted material. It was, we could say, "
10124 "<emphasis>legal code</emphasis> intended to buttress <emphasis>software "
10125 "code</emphasis> which itself was intended to support the <emphasis>legal "
10126 "code of copyright</emphasis>."
10129 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10130 #: freeculture.xml:7638
10132 "But the DMCA was not designed merely to protect copyrighted works to the "
10133 "extent copyright law protected them. Its protection, that is, did not end at "
10134 "the line that copyright law drew. The DMCA regulated devices that were "
10135 "designed to circumvent copyright protection measures. It was designed to ban "
10136 "those devices, whether or not the use of the copyrighted material made "
10137 "possible by that circumvention would have been a copyright violation."
10141 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10142 #: freeculture.xml:7647
10144 "Aibopet.com and Felten make the point. The Aibo hack circumvented a "
10145 "copyright protection system for the purpose of enabling the dog to dance "
10146 "jazz. That enablement no doubt involved the use of copyrighted material. But "
10147 "as aibopet.com's site was noncommercial, and the use did not enable "
10148 "subsequent copyright infringements, there's no doubt that aibopet.com's hack "
10149 "was fair use of Sony's copyrighted material. Yet fair use is not a defense "
10150 "to the DMCA. The question is not whether the use of the copyrighted material "
10151 "was a copyright violation. The question is whether a copyright protection "
10152 "system was circumvented."
10155 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10156 #: freeculture.xml:7659
10158 "The threat against Felten was more attenuated, but it followed the same line "
10159 "of reasoning. By publishing a paper describing how a copyright protection "
10160 "system could be circumvented, the RIAA lawyer suggested, Felten himself was "
10161 "distributing a circumvention technology. Thus, even though he was not "
10162 "himself infringing anyone's copyright, his academic paper was enabling "
10163 "others to infringe others' copyright."
10166 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
10167 #: freeculture.xml:7675 freeculture.xml:7710 freeculture.xml:7742
10168 msgid "Conrad, Paul"
10171 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10172 #: freeculture.xml:7667
10174 "The bizarreness of these arguments is captured in a cartoon drawn in 1981 by "
10175 "Paul Conrad. At that time, a court in California had held that the VCR could "
10176 "be banned because it was a copyright-infringing technology: It enabled "
10177 "consumers to copy films without the permission of the copyright owner. No "
10178 "doubt there were uses of the technology that were legal: Fred Rogers, aka "
10179 "\"<citetitle>Mr. Rogers</citetitle>,\" for example, had testified in that "
10180 "case that he wanted people to feel free to tape Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. "
10181 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
10185 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
10186 #: freeculture.xml:7694
10188 "<citetitle>Sony Corporation of America</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Universal "
10189 "City Studios, Inc</citetitle>., 464 U.S. 417, 455 fn. 27 (1984). Rogers "
10190 "never changed his view about the VCR. See James Lardner, <citetitle>Fast "
10191 "Forward: Hollywood, the Japanese, and the Onslaught of the VCR</citetitle> "
10192 "(New York: W. W. Norton, 1987), 270–71."
10195 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
10196 #: freeculture.xml:7679
10198 "Some public stations, as well as commercial stations, program the "
10199 "\"Neighborhood\" at hours when some children cannot use it. I think that "
10200 "it's a real service to families to be able to record such programs and show "
10201 "them at appropriate times. I have always felt that with the advent of all of "
10202 "this new technology that allows people to tape the \"Neighborhood\" "
10203 "off-the-air, and I'm speaking for the \"Neighborhood\" because that's what I "
10204 "produce, that they then become much more active in the programming of their "
10205 "family's television life. Very frankly, I am opposed to people being "
10206 "programmed by others. My whole approach in broadcasting has always been "
10207 "\"You are an important person just the way you are. You can make healthy "
10208 "decisions.\" Maybe I'm going on too long, but I just feel that anything that "
10209 "allows a person to be more active in the control of his or her life, in a "
10210 "healthy way, is important.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
10214 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10215 #: freeculture.xml:7703
10217 "Even though there were uses that were legal, because there were some uses "
10218 "that were illegal, the court held the companies producing the VCR "
10222 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10223 #: freeculture.xml:7708
10225 "This led Conrad to draw the cartoon below, which we can adopt to the DMCA. "
10226 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
10229 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10230 #: freeculture.xml:7713
10231 msgid "No argument I have can top this picture, but let me try to get close."
10234 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10235 #: freeculture.xml:7716
10237 "The anticircumvention provisions of the DMCA target copyright circumvention "
10238 "technologies. Circumvention technologies can be used for different "
10239 "ends. They can be used, for example, to enable massive pirating of "
10240 "copyrighted material—a bad end. Or they can be used to enable the use "
10241 "of particular copyrighted materials in ways that would be considered fair "
10242 "use—a good end."
10246 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10247 #: freeculture.xml:7724
10249 "A handgun can be used to shoot a police officer or a child. Most would agree "
10250 "such a use is bad. Or a handgun can be used for target practice or to "
10251 "protect against an intruder. At least some would say that such a use would "
10252 "be good. It, too, is a technology that has both good and bad uses."
10255 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
10256 #: freeculture.xml:7732
10257 msgid "VCR/handgun cartoon."
10260 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10261 #: freeculture.xml:7733
10262 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1711.png\"></graphic>"
10265 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10266 #: freeculture.xml:7736
10268 "The obvious point of Conrad's cartoon is the weirdness of a world where guns "
10269 "are legal, despite the harm they can do, while VCRs (and circumvention "
10270 "technologies) are illegal. Flash: <emphasis>No one ever died from copyright "
10271 "circumvention</emphasis>. Yet the law bans circumvention technologies "
10272 "absolutely, despite the potential that they might do some good, but permits "
10273 "guns, despite the obvious and tragic harm they do. <placeholder "
10274 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
10277 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10278 #: freeculture.xml:7745
10280 "The Aibo and RIAA examples demonstrate how copyright owners are changing the "
10281 "balance that copyright law grants. Using code, copyright owners restrict "
10282 "fair use; using the DMCA, they punish those who would attempt to evade the "
10283 "restrictions on fair use that they impose through code. Technology becomes a "
10284 "means by which fair use can be erased; the law of the DMCA backs up that "
10288 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10289 #: freeculture.xml:7753
10291 "This is how <emphasis>code</emphasis> becomes <emphasis>law</emphasis>. The "
10292 "controls built into the technology of copy and access protection become "
10293 "rules the violation of which is also a violation of the law. In this way, "
10294 "the code extends the law—increasing its regulation, even if the "
10295 "subject it regulates (activities that would otherwise plainly constitute "
10296 "fair use) is beyond the reach of the law. Code becomes law; code extends the "
10297 "law; code thus extends the control that copyright owners effect—at "
10298 "least for those copyright holders with the lawyers who can write the nasty "
10299 "letters that Felten and aibopet.com received."
10302 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10303 #: freeculture.xml:7765
10305 "There is one final aspect of the interaction between architecture and law "
10306 "that contributes to the force of copyright's regulation. This is the ease "
10307 "with which infringements of the law can be detected. For contrary to the "
10308 "rhetoric common at the birth of cyberspace that on the Internet, no one "
10309 "knows you're a dog, increasingly, given changing technologies deployed on "
10310 "the Internet, it is easy to find the dog who committed a legal wrong. The "
10311 "technologies of the Internet are open to snoops as well as sharers, and the "
10312 "snoops are increasingly good at tracking down the identity of those who "
10313 "violate the rules."
10317 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10318 #: freeculture.xml:7784
10320 "For an early and prescient analysis, see Rebecca Tushnet, \"Legal Fictions, "
10321 "Copyright, Fan Fiction, and a New Common Law,\" <citetitle>Loyola of Los "
10322 "Angeles Entertainment Law Journal</citetitle> 17 (1997): 651."
10325 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10326 #: freeculture.xml:7778
10328 "For example, imagine you were part of a <citetitle>Star Trek</citetitle> fan "
10329 "club. You gathered every month to share trivia, and maybe to enact a kind of "
10330 "fan fiction about the show. One person would play Spock, another, Captain "
10331 "Kirk. The characters would begin with a plot from a real story, then simply "
10332 "continue it.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
10335 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10336 #: freeculture.xml:7790
10338 "Before the Internet, this was, in effect, a totally unregulated activity. "
10339 "No matter what happened inside your club room, you would never be interfered "
10340 "with by the copyright police. You were free in that space to do as you "
10341 "wished with this part of our culture. You were allowed to build on it as you "
10342 "wished without fear of legal control."
10345 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10346 #: freeculture.xml:7797
10348 "But if you moved your club onto the Internet, and made it generally "
10349 "available for others to join, the story would be very different. Bots "
10350 "scouring the Net for trademark and copyright infringement would quickly find "
10351 "your site. Your posting of fan fiction, depending upon the ownership of the "
10352 "series that you're depicting, could well inspire a lawyer's threat. And "
10353 "ignoring the lawyer's threat would be extremely costly indeed. The law of "
10354 "copyright is extremely efficient. The penalties are severe, and the process "
10358 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10359 #: freeculture.xml:7807
10361 "This change in the effective force of the law is caused by a change in the "
10362 "ease with which the law can be enforced. That change too shifts the law's "
10363 "balance radically. It is as if your car transmitted the speed at which you "
10364 "traveled at every moment that you drove; that would be just one step before "
10365 "the state started issuing tickets based upon the data you transmitted. That "
10366 "is, in effect, what is happening here."
10369 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
10370 #: freeculture.xml:7816
10371 msgid "Market: Concentration"
10375 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10376 #: freeculture.xml:7818
10378 "So copyright's duration has increased dramatically—tripled in the past "
10379 "thirty years. And copyright's scope has increased as well—from "
10380 "regulating only publishers to now regulating just about everyone. And "
10381 "copyright's reach has changed, as every action becomes a copy and hence "
10382 "presumptively regulated. And as technologists find better ways to control "
10383 "the use of content, and as copyright is increasingly enforced through "
10384 "technology, copyright's force changes, too. Misuse is easier to find and "
10385 "easier to control. This regulation of the creative process, which began as a "
10386 "tiny regulation governing a tiny part of the market for creative work, has "
10387 "become the single most important regulator of creativity there is. It is a "
10388 "massive expansion in the scope of the government's control over innovation "
10389 "and creativity; it would be totally unrecognizable to those who gave birth "
10390 "to copyright's control."
10393 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10394 #: freeculture.xml:7836
10396 "Still, in my view, all of these changes would not matter much if it weren't "
10397 "for one more change that we must also consider. This is a change that is in "
10398 "some sense the most familiar, though its significance and scope are not well "
10399 "understood. It is the one that creates precisely the reason to be concerned "
10400 "about all the other changes I have described."
10403 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10404 #: freeculture.xml:7843
10406 "This is the change in the concentration and integration of the media. In "
10407 "the past twenty years, the nature of media ownership has undergone a radical "
10408 "alteration, caused by changes in legal rules governing the media. Before "
10409 "this change happened, the different forms of media were owned by separate "
10410 "media companies. Now, the media is increasingly owned by only a few "
10411 "companies. Indeed, after the changes that the FCC announced in June 2003, "
10412 "most expect that within a few years, we will live in a world where just "
10413 "three companies control more than percent of the media."
10416 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10417 #: freeculture.xml:7854
10418 msgid "These changes are of two sorts: the scope of concentration, and its nature."
10422 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10423 #: freeculture.xml:7862
10425 "FCC Oversight: Hearing Before the Senate Commerce, Science and "
10426 "Transportation Committee, 108th Cong., 1st sess. (22 May 2003) (statement "
10427 "of Senator John McCain)."
10431 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10432 #: freeculture.xml:7869
10434 "Lynette Holloway, \"Despite a Marketing Blitz, CD Sales Continue to Slide,\" "
10435 "<citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 23 December 2002."
10439 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10440 #: freeculture.xml:7875
10442 "Molly Ivins, \"Media Consolidation Must Be Stopped,\" <citetitle>Charleston "
10443 "Gazette</citetitle>, 31 May 2003."
10446 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
10447 #: freeculture.xml:7878
10451 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
10452 #: freeculture.xml:7879 freeculture.xml:9220
10456 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
10457 #: freeculture.xml:7880
10458 msgid "McCain, John"
10461 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
10462 #: freeculture.xml:7881 freeculture.xml:9221
10463 msgid "Universal Music Group"
10466 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
10467 #: freeculture.xml:7882
10468 msgid "Warner Music Group"
10471 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10472 #: freeculture.xml:7858
10474 "Changes in scope are the easier ones to describe. As Senator John McCain "
10475 "summarized the data produced in the FCC's review of media ownership, \"five "
10476 "companies control 85 percent of our media sources.\"<placeholder "
10477 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The five recording labels of Universal Music "
10478 "Group, BMG, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, and EMI control "
10479 "84.8 percent of the U.S. music market.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
10480 "id=\"1\"/> The \"five largest cable companies pipe programming to 74 percent "
10481 "of the cable subscribers nationwide.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
10482 "id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/> <placeholder "
10483 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"4\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"5\"/> "
10484 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"6\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
10489 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10490 #: freeculture.xml:7885
10492 "The story with radio is even more dramatic. Before deregulation, the "
10493 "nation's largest radio broadcasting conglomerate owned fewer than "
10494 "seventy-five stations. Today <emphasis>one</emphasis> company owns more than "
10495 "1,200 stations. During that period of consolidation, the total number of "
10496 "radio owners dropped by 34 percent. Today, in most markets, the two largest "
10497 "broadcasters control 74 percent of that market's revenues. Overall, just "
10498 "four companies control 90 percent of the nation's radio advertising "
10502 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10503 #: freeculture.xml:7896
10505 "Newspaper ownership is becoming more concentrated as well. Today, there are "
10506 "six hundred fewer daily newspapers in the United States than there were "
10507 "eighty years ago, and ten companies control half of the nation's "
10508 "circulation. There are twenty major newspaper publishers in the United "
10509 "States. The top ten film studios receive 99 percent of all film revenue. The "
10510 "ten largest cable companies account for 85 percent of all cable "
10511 "revenue. This is a market far from the free press the framers sought to "
10512 "protect. Indeed, it is a market that is quite well protected— by the "
10516 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
10517 #: freeculture.xml:7910 freeculture.xml:7927
10518 msgid "Fallows, James"
10521 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10522 #: freeculture.xml:7907
10524 "Concentration in size alone is one thing. The more invidious change is in "
10525 "the nature of that concentration. As author James Fallows put it in a recent "
10526 "article about Rupert Murdoch, <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
10529 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
10530 #: freeculture.xml:7925
10532 "James Fallows, \"The Age of Murdoch,\" <citetitle>Atlantic "
10533 "Monthly</citetitle> (September 2003): 89. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
10537 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
10538 #: freeculture.xml:7914
10540 "Murdoch's companies now constitute a production system unmatched in its "
10541 "integration. They supply content—Fox movies … Fox TV shows "
10542 "… Fox-controlled sports broadcasts, plus newspapers and books. They "
10543 "sell the content to the public and to advertisers—in newspapers, on "
10544 "the broadcast network, on the cable channels. And they operate the physical "
10545 "distribution system through which the content reaches the "
10546 "customers. Murdoch's satellite systems now distribute News Corp. content in "
10547 "Europe and Asia; if Murdoch becomes DirecTV's largest single owner, that "
10548 "system will serve the same function in the United States.<placeholder "
10549 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
10552 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10553 #: freeculture.xml:7932
10555 "The pattern with Murdoch is the pattern of modern media. Not just large "
10556 "companies owning many radio stations, but a few companies owning as many "
10557 "outlets of media as possible. A picture describes this pattern better than a "
10558 "thousand words could do:"
10561 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
10562 #: freeculture.xml:7938
10563 msgid "Pattern of modern media ownership."
10566 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10567 #: freeculture.xml:7939
10568 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1761.png\"></graphic>"
10572 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10573 #: freeculture.xml:7943
10575 "Does this concentration matter? Will it affect what is made, or what is "
10576 "distributed? Or is it merely a more efficient way to produce and distribute "
10580 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10581 #: freeculture.xml:7948
10583 "My view was that concentration wouldn't matter. I thought it was nothing "
10584 "more than a more efficient financial structure. But now, after reading and "
10585 "listening to a barrage of creators try to convince me to the contrary, I am "
10586 "beginning to change my mind."
10589 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10590 #: freeculture.xml:7954
10592 "Here's a representative story that begins to suggest how this integration "
10596 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10597 #: freeculture.xml:7957
10598 msgid "Lear, Norman"
10601 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10602 #: freeculture.xml:7959 freeculture.xml:8022
10603 msgid "All in the Family"
10606 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10607 #: freeculture.xml:7961
10609 "In 1969, Norman Lear created a pilot for <citetitle>All in the "
10610 "Family</citetitle>. He took the pilot to ABC. The network didn't like it. It "
10611 "was too edgy, they told Lear. Make it again. Lear made a second pilot, more "
10612 "edgy than the first. ABC was exasperated. You're missing the point, they "
10613 "told Lear. We wanted less edgy, not more."
10617 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10618 #: freeculture.xml:7973
10620 "Leonard Hill, \"The Axis of Access,\" remarks before Weidenbaum Center "
10621 "Forum, \"Entertainment Economics: The Movie Industry,\" St. Louis, Missouri, "
10622 "3 April 2003 (transcript of prepared remarks available at <ulink "
10623 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #28</ulink>; for the Lear story, "
10624 "not included in the prepared remarks, see <ulink "
10625 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #29</ulink>)."
10628 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10629 #: freeculture.xml:7968
10631 "Rather than comply, Lear simply took the show elsewhere. CBS was happy to "
10632 "have the series; ABC could not stop Lear from walking. The copyrights that "
10633 "Lear held assured an independence from network control.<placeholder "
10634 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
10638 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10639 #: freeculture.xml:7984
10641 "The network did not control those copyrights because the law forbade the "
10642 "networks from controlling the content they syndicated. The law required a "
10643 "separation between the networks and the content producers; that separation "
10644 "would guarantee Lear freedom. And as late as 1992, because of these rules, "
10645 "the vast majority of prime time television—75 percent of it—was "
10646 "\"independent\" of the networks."
10650 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10651 #: freeculture.xml:8003
10653 "NewsCorp./DirecTV Merger and Media Consolidation: Hearings on Media "
10654 "Ownership Before the Senate Commerce Committee, 108th Cong., 1st "
10655 "sess. (2003) (testimony of Gene Kimmelman on behalf of Consumers Union and "
10656 "the Consumer Federation of America), available at <ulink "
10657 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #30</ulink>. Kimmelman quotes "
10658 "Victoria Riskin, president of Writers Guild of America, West, in her Remarks "
10659 "at FCC En Banc Hearing, Richmond, Virginia, 27 February 2003."
10662 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10663 #: freeculture.xml:7993
10665 "In 1994, the FCC abandoned the rules that required this independence. After "
10666 "that change, the networks quickly changed the balance. In 1985, there were "
10667 "twenty-five independent television production studios; in 2002, only five "
10668 "independent television studios remained. \"In 1992, only 15 percent of new "
10669 "series were produced for a network by a company it controlled. Last year, "
10670 "the percentage of shows produced by controlled companies more than "
10671 "quintupled to 77 percent.\" \"In 1992, 16 new series were produced "
10672 "independently of conglomerate control, last year there was "
10673 "one.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> In 2002, 75 percent of prime "
10674 "time television was owned by the networks that ran it. \"In the ten-year "
10675 "period between 1992 and 2002, the number of prime time television hours per "
10676 "week produced by network studios increased over 200%, whereas the number of "
10677 "prime time television hours per week produced by independent studios "
10678 "decreased 63%.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
10681 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10682 #: freeculture.xml:8024
10684 "Today, another Norman Lear with another <citetitle>All in the "
10685 "Family</citetitle> would find that he had the choice either to make the show "
10686 "less edgy or to be fired: The content of any show developed for a network is "
10687 "increasingly owned by the network."
10690 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
10691 #: freeculture.xml:8033
10692 msgid "Diller, Barry"
10695 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
10696 #: freeculture.xml:8034
10697 msgid "Moyers, Bill"
10700 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10701 #: freeculture.xml:8030
10703 "While the number of channels has increased dramatically, the ownership of "
10704 "those channels has narrowed to an ever smaller and smaller few. As Barry "
10705 "Diller said to Bill Moyers, <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> "
10706 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
10710 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
10711 #: freeculture.xml:8047
10713 "\"Barry Diller Takes on Media Deregulation,\" <citetitle>Now with Bill "
10714 "Moyers</citetitle>, Bill Moyers, 25 April 2003, edited transcript available "
10715 "at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #31</ulink>."
10718 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
10719 #: freeculture.xml:8038
10721 "Well, if you have companies that produce, that finance, that air on their "
10722 "channel and then distribute worldwide everything that goes through their "
10723 "controlled distribution system, then what you get is fewer and fewer actual "
10724 "voices participating in the process. [We u]sed to have dozens and dozens of "
10725 "thriving independent production companies producing television programs. Now "
10726 "you have less than a handful.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
10729 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10730 #: freeculture.xml:8054
10732 "This narrowing has an effect on what is produced. The product of such large "
10733 "and concentrated networks is increasingly homogenous. Increasingly "
10734 "safe. Increasingly sterile. The product of news shows from networks like "
10735 "this is increasingly tailored to the message the network wants to "
10736 "convey. This is not the communist party, though from the inside, it must "
10737 "feel a bit like the communist party. No one can question without risk of "
10738 "consequence—not necessarily banishment to Siberia, but punishment "
10739 "nonetheless. Independent, critical, different views are quashed. This is not "
10740 "the environment for a democracy."
10743 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10744 #: freeculture.xml:8065
10745 msgid "Clark, Kim B."
10749 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10750 #: freeculture.xml:8074
10752 "Clayton M. Christensen, <citetitle>The Innovator's Dilemma: The "
10753 "Revolutionary National Bestseller that Changed the Way We Do "
10754 "Business</citetitle> (Cambridge: Harvard Business School Press, "
10755 "1997). Christensen acknowledges that the idea was first suggested by Dean "
10756 "Kim Clark. See Kim B. Clark, \"The Interaction of Design Hierarchies and "
10757 "Market Concepts in Technological Evolution,\" <citetitle>Research "
10758 "Policy</citetitle> 14 (1985): 235–51. For a more recent study, see "
10759 "Richard Foster and Sarah Kaplan, <citetitle>Creative Destruction: Why "
10760 "Companies That Are Built to Last Underperform the Market—and How to "
10761 "Successfully Transform Them</citetitle> (New York: Currency/Doubleday, "
10765 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10766 #: freeculture.xml:8067
10768 "Economics itself offers a parallel that explains why this integration "
10769 "affects creativity. Clay Christensen has written about the \"Innovator's "
10770 "Dilemma\": the fact that large traditional firms find it rational to ignore "
10771 "new, breakthrough technologies that compete with their core business. The "
10772 "same analysis could help explain why large, traditional media companies "
10773 "would find it rational to ignore new cultural trends.<placeholder "
10774 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Lumbering giants not only don't, but should "
10775 "not, sprint. Yet if the field is only open to the giants, there will be far "
10776 "too little sprinting. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
10779 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10780 #: freeculture.xml:8091
10782 "I don't think we know enough about the economics of the media market to say "
10783 "with certainty what concentration and integration will do. The efficiencies "
10784 "are important, and the effect on culture is hard to measure."
10787 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10788 #: freeculture.xml:8097
10790 "But there is a quintessentially obvious example that does strongly suggest "
10794 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10795 #: freeculture.xml:8101
10797 "In addition to the copyright wars, we're in the middle of the drug "
10798 "wars. Government policy is strongly directed against the drug cartels; "
10799 "criminal and civil courts are filled with the consequences of this battle."
10803 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10804 #: freeculture.xml:8106
10806 "Let me hereby disqualify myself from any possible appointment to any "
10807 "position in government by saying I believe this war is a profound mistake. I "
10808 "am not pro drugs. Indeed, I come from a family once wrecked by "
10809 "drugs—though the drugs that wrecked my family were all quite legal. I "
10810 "believe this war is a profound mistake because the collateral damage from it "
10811 "is so great as to make waging the war insane. When you add together the "
10812 "burdens on the criminal justice system, the desperation of generations of "
10813 "kids whose only real economic opportunities are as drug warriors, the "
10814 "queering of constitutional protections because of the constant surveillance "
10815 "this war requires, and, most profoundly, the total destruction of the legal "
10816 "systems of many South American nations because of the power of the local "
10817 "drug cartels, I find it impossible to believe that the marginal benefit in "
10818 "reduced drug consumption by Americans could possibly outweigh these costs."
10821 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10822 #: freeculture.xml:8125
10824 "You may not be convinced. That's fine. We live in a democracy, and it is "
10825 "through votes that we are to choose policy. But to do that, we depend "
10826 "fundamentally upon the press to help inform Americans about these issues."
10829 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10830 #: freeculture.xml:8131
10832 "Beginning in 1998, the Office of National Drug Control Policy launched a "
10833 "media campaign as part of the \"war on drugs.\" The campaign produced scores "
10834 "of short film clips about issues related to illegal drugs. In one series "
10835 "(the Nick and Norm series) two men are in a bar, discussing the idea of "
10836 "legalizing drugs as a way to avoid some of the collateral damage from the "
10837 "war. One advances an argument in favor of drug legalization. The other "
10838 "responds in a powerful and effective way against the argument of the "
10839 "first. In the end, the first guy changes his mind (hey, it's "
10840 "television). The plug at the end is a damning attack on the pro-legalization "
10844 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10845 #: freeculture.xml:8143
10847 "Fair enough. It's a good ad. Not terribly misleading. It delivers its "
10848 "message well. It's a fair and reasonable message."
10851 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10852 #: freeculture.xml:8147
10854 "But let's say you think it is a wrong message, and you'd like to run a "
10855 "countercommercial. Say you want to run a series of ads that try to "
10856 "demonstrate the extraordinary collateral harm that comes from the drug "
10857 "war. Can you do it?"
10861 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10862 #: freeculture.xml:8153
10864 "Well, obviously, these ads cost lots of money. Assume you raise the "
10865 "money. Assume a group of concerned citizens donates all the money in the "
10866 "world to help you get your message out. Can you be sure your message will be "
10870 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
10871 #: freeculture.xml:8195
10875 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
10876 #: freeculture.xml:8196
10877 msgid "Marijuana Policy Project"
10880 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
10881 #: freeculture.xml:8197
10885 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
10886 #: freeculture.xml:8198
10890 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
10891 #: freeculture.xml:8199
10895 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10896 #: freeculture.xml:8170
10898 "The Marijuana Policy Project, in February 2003, sought to place ads that "
10899 "directly responded to the Nick and Norm series on stations within the "
10900 "Washington, D.C., area. Comcast rejected the ads as \"against [their] "
10901 "policy.\" The local NBC affiliate, WRC, rejected the ads without reviewing "
10902 "them. The local ABC affiliate, WJOA, originally agreed to run the ads and "
10903 "accepted payment to do so, but later decided not to run the ads and returned "
10904 "the collected fees. Interview with Neal Levine, 15 October 2003. These "
10905 "restrictions are, of course, not limited to drug policy. See, for example, "
10906 "Nat Ives, \"On the Issue of an Iraq War, Advocacy Ads Meet with Rejection "
10907 "from TV Networks,\" <citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 13 March 2003, "
10908 "C4. Outside of election-related air time there is very little that the FCC "
10909 "or the courts are willing to do to even the playing field. For a general "
10910 "overview, see Rhonda Brown, \"Ad Hoc Access: The Regulation of Editorial "
10911 "Advertising on Television and Radio,\" <citetitle>Yale Law and Policy "
10912 "Review</citetitle> 6 (1988): 449–79, and for a more recent summary of "
10913 "the stance of the FCC and the courts, see <citetitle>Radio-Television News "
10914 "Directors Association</citetitle> v. <citetitle>FCC</citetitle>, 184 F. 3d "
10915 "872 (D.C. Cir. 1999). Municipal authorities exercise the same authority as "
10916 "the networks. In a recent example from San Francisco, the San Francisco "
10917 "transit authority rejected an ad that criticized its Muni diesel "
10918 "buses. Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross, \"Antidiesel Group Fuming After Muni "
10919 "Rejects Ad,\" SFGate.com, 16 June 2003, available at <ulink "
10920 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #32</ulink>. The ground was that "
10921 "the criticism was \"too controversial.\" <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
10922 "id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> <placeholder "
10923 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/> "
10924 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"4\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
10928 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10929 #: freeculture.xml:8160
10931 "No. You cannot. Television stations have a general policy of avoiding "
10932 "\"controversial\" ads. Ads sponsored by the government are deemed "
10933 "uncontroversial; ads disagreeing with the government are controversial. "
10934 "This selectivity might be thought inconsistent with the First Amendment, but "
10935 "the Supreme Court has held that stations have the right to choose what they "
10936 "run. Thus, the major channels of commercial media will refuse one side of a "
10937 "crucial debate the opportunity to present its case. And the courts will "
10938 "defend the rights of the stations to be this biased.<placeholder "
10939 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
10942 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10943 #: freeculture.xml:8203
10945 "I'd be happy to defend the networks' rights, as well—if we lived in a "
10946 "media market that was truly diverse. But concentration in the media throws "
10947 "that condition into doubt. If a handful of companies control access to the "
10948 "media, and that handful of companies gets to decide which political "
10949 "positions it will allow to be promoted on its channels, then in an obvious "
10950 "and important way, concentration matters. You might like the positions the "
10951 "handful of companies selects. But you should not like a world in which a "
10952 "mere few get to decide which issues the rest of us get to know about."
10955 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
10956 #: freeculture.xml:8215
10960 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10961 #: freeculture.xml:8217
10963 "There is something innocent and obvious about the claim of the copyright "
10964 "warriors that the government should \"protect my property.\" In the "
10965 "abstract, it is obviously true and, ordinarily, totally harmless. No sane "
10966 "sort who is not an anarchist could disagree."
10970 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10971 #: freeculture.xml:8223
10973 "But when we see how dramatically this \"property\" has changed— when "
10974 "we recognize how it might now interact with both technology and markets to "
10975 "mean that the effective constraint on the liberty to cultivate our culture "
10976 "is dramatically different—the claim begins to seem less innocent and "
10977 "obvious. Given (1) the power of technology to supplement the law's control, "
10978 "and (2) the power of concentrated markets to weaken the opportunity for "
10979 "dissent, if strictly enforcing the massively expanded \"property\" rights "
10980 "granted by copyright fundamentally changes the freedom within this culture "
10981 "to cultivate and build upon our past, then we have to ask whether this "
10982 "property should be redefined."
10985 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10986 #: freeculture.xml:8239
10988 "Not starkly. Or absolutely. My point is not that we should abolish copyright "
10989 "or go back to the eighteenth century. That would be a total mistake, "
10990 "disastrous for the most important creative enterprises within our culture "
10994 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10995 #: freeculture.xml:8245
10997 "But there is a space between zero and one, Internet culture "
10998 "notwithstanding. And these massive shifts in the effective power of "
10999 "copyright regulation, tied to increased concentration of the content "
11000 "industry and resting in the hands of technology that will increasingly "
11001 "enable control over the use of culture, should drive us to consider whether "
11002 "another adjustment is called for. Not an adjustment that increases "
11003 "copyright's power. Not an adjustment that increases its term. Rather, an "
11004 "adjustment to restore the balance that has traditionally defined copyright's "
11005 "regulation—a weakening of that regulation, to strengthen creativity."
11008 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11009 #: freeculture.xml:8257
11011 "Copyright law has not been a rock of Gibraltar. It's not a set of constant "
11012 "commitments that, for some mysterious reason, teenagers and geeks now "
11013 "flout. Instead, copyright power has grown dramatically in a short period of "
11014 "time, as the technologies of distribution and creation have changed and as "
11015 "lobbyists have pushed for more control by copyright holders. Changes in the "
11016 "past in response to changes in technology suggest that we may well need "
11017 "similar changes in the future. And these changes have to be "
11018 "<emphasis>reductions</emphasis> in the scope of copyright, in response to "
11019 "the extraordinary increase in control that technology and the market enable."
11023 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11024 #: freeculture.xml:8269
11026 "For the single point that is lost in this war on pirates is a point that we "
11027 "see only after surveying the range of these changes. When you add together "
11028 "the effect of changing law, concentrated markets, and changing technology, "
11029 "together they produce an astonishing conclusion: <emphasis>Never in our "
11030 "history have fewer had a legal right to control more of the development of "
11031 "our culture than now</emphasis>."
11034 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11035 #: freeculture.xml:8293
11037 "Siva Vaidhyanathan captures a similar point in his \"four surrenders\" of "
11038 "copyright law in the digital age. See Vaidhyanathan, 159–60. "
11039 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
11042 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11043 #: freeculture.xml:8278
11045 "Not when copyrights were perpetual, for when copyrights were perpetual, they "
11046 "affected only that precise creative work. Not when only publishers had the "
11047 "tools to publish, for the market then was much more diverse. Not when there "
11048 "were only three television networks, for even then, newspapers, film "
11049 "studios, radio stations, and publishers were independent of the "
11050 "networks. <emphasis>Never</emphasis> has copyright protected such a wide "
11051 "range of rights, against as broad a range of actors, for a term that was "
11052 "remotely as long. This form of regulation—a tiny regulation of a tiny "
11053 "part of the creative energy of a nation at the founding—is now a "
11054 "massive regulation of the overall creative process. Law plus technology plus "
11055 "the market now interact to turn this historically benign regulation into the "
11056 "most significant regulation of culture that our free society has "
11057 "known.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
11060 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11061 #: freeculture.xml:8299
11062 msgid "This has been a long chapter. Its point can now be briefly stated."
11065 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11066 #: freeculture.xml:8302
11068 "At the start of this book, I distinguished between commercial and "
11069 "noncommercial culture. In the course of this chapter, I have distinguished "
11070 "between copying a work and transforming it. We can now combine these two "
11071 "distinctions and draw a clear map of the changes that copyright law has "
11072 "undergone. In 1790, the law looked like this:"
11075 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><title>
11076 #: freeculture.xml:8310
11077 msgid "Law status in 1790"
11080 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
11081 #: freeculture.xml:8315 freeculture.xml:8353
11085 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
11086 #: freeculture.xml:8316 freeculture.xml:8354 freeculture.xml:8393 freeculture.xml:8426
11090 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
11091 #: freeculture.xml:8321 freeculture.xml:8359 freeculture.xml:8398 freeculture.xml:8431
11095 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
11096 #: freeculture.xml:8322 freeculture.xml:8360 freeculture.xml:8361 freeculture.xml:8399 freeculture.xml:8400 freeculture.xml:8432 freeculture.xml:8433 freeculture.xml:8437 freeculture.xml:8438
11100 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
11101 #: freeculture.xml:8323 freeculture.xml:8327 freeculture.xml:8328 freeculture.xml:8365 freeculture.xml:8366 freeculture.xml:8405
11105 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
11106 #: freeculture.xml:8326 freeculture.xml:8364 freeculture.xml:8403 freeculture.xml:8436
11107 msgid "Noncommercial"
11111 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11112 #: freeculture.xml:8335
11114 "The act of publishing a map, chart, and book was regulated by copyright "
11115 "law. Nothing else was. Transformations were free. And as copyright attached "
11116 "only with registration, and only those who intended to benefit commercially "
11117 "would register, copying through publishing of noncommercial work was also "
11121 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11122 #: freeculture.xml:8344
11123 msgid "By the end of the nineteenth century, the law had changed to this:"
11126 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><title>
11127 #: freeculture.xml:8348
11128 msgid "Law status at the end of ninetheenth centory"
11131 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11132 #: freeculture.xml:8373
11134 "Derivative works were now regulated by copyright law—if published, "
11135 "which again, given the economics of publishing at the time, means if offered "
11136 "commercially. But noncommercial publishing and transformation were still "
11137 "essentially free."
11140 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11141 #: freeculture.xml:8379
11143 "In 1909 the law changed to regulate copies, not publishing, and after this "
11144 "change, the scope of the law was tied to technology. As the technology of "
11145 "copying became more prevalent, the reach of the law expanded. Thus by 1975, "
11146 "as photocopying machines became more common, we could say the law began to "
11150 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><title>
11151 #: freeculture.xml:8387
11152 msgid "Law status in 1975"
11155 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
11156 #: freeculture.xml:8392 freeculture.xml:8425
11160 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
11161 #: freeculture.xml:8404
11162 msgid "©/Free"
11165 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11166 #: freeculture.xml:8412
11168 "The law was interpreted to reach noncommercial copying through, say, copy "
11169 "machines, but still much of copying outside of the commercial market "
11170 "remained free. But the consequence of the emergence of digital technologies, "
11171 "especially in the context of a digital network, means that the law now looks "
11175 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><title>
11176 #: freeculture.xml:8420
11177 msgid "Law status now"
11181 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11182 #: freeculture.xml:8445
11184 "Every realm is governed by copyright law, whereas before most creativity was "
11185 "not. The law now regulates the full range of creativity— commercial or "
11186 "not, transformative or not—with the same rules designed to regulate "
11187 "commercial publishers."
11190 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11191 #: freeculture.xml:8453
11193 "Obviously, copyright law is not the enemy. The enemy is regulation that does "
11194 "no good. So the question that we should be asking just now is whether "
11195 "extending the regulations of copyright law into each of these domains "
11196 "actually does any good."
11199 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11200 #: freeculture.xml:8459
11202 "I have no doubt that it does good in regulating commercial copying. But I "
11203 "also have no doubt that it does more harm than good when regulating (as it "
11204 "regulates just now) noncommercial copying and, especially, noncommercial "
11205 "transformation. And increasingly, for the reasons sketched especially in "
11206 "chapters <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"recorders\"/> and "
11207 "<xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"transformers\"/>, one "
11208 "might well wonder whether it does more harm than good for commercial "
11209 "transformation. More commercial transformative work would be created if "
11210 "derivative rights were more sharply restricted."
11213 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
11214 #: freeculture.xml:8483
11215 msgid "legal realist movement"
11218 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11219 #: freeculture.xml:8477
11221 "It was the single most important contribution of the legal realist movement "
11222 "to demonstrate that all property rights are always crafted to balance public "
11223 "and private interests. See Thomas C. Grey, \"The Disintegration of "
11224 "Property,\" in <citetitle>Nomos XXII: Property</citetitle>, J. Roland "
11225 "Pennock and John W. Chapman, eds. (New York: New York University Press, "
11226 "1980). <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
11229 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11230 #: freeculture.xml:8471
11232 "The issue is therefore not simply whether copyright is property. Of course "
11233 "copyright is a kind of \"property,\" and of course, as with any property, "
11234 "the state ought to protect it. But first impressions notwithstanding, "
11235 "historically, this property right (as with all property rights<placeholder "
11236 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>) has been crafted to balance the important "
11237 "need to give authors and artists incentives with the equally important need "
11238 "to assure access to creative work. This balance has always been struck in "
11239 "light of new technologies. And for almost half of our tradition, the "
11240 "\"copyright\" did not control <emphasis>at all</emphasis> the freedom of "
11241 "others to build upon or transform a creative work. American culture was born "
11242 "free, and for almost 180 years our country consistently protected a vibrant "
11243 "and rich free culture."
11247 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11248 #: freeculture.xml:8495
11250 "We achieved that free culture because our law respected important limits on "
11251 "the scope of the interests protected by \"property.\" The very birth of "
11252 "\"copyright\" as a statutory right recognized those limits, by granting "
11253 "copyright owners protection for a limited time only (the story of chapter "
11254 "6). The tradition of \"fair use\" is animated by a similar concern that is "
11255 "increasingly under strain as the costs of exercising any fair use right "
11256 "become unavoidably high (the story of chapter 7). Adding statutory rights "
11257 "where markets might stifle innovation is another familiar limit on the "
11258 "property right that copyright is (chapter 8). And granting archives and "
11259 "libraries a broad freedom to collect, claims of property notwithstanding, is "
11260 "a crucial part of guaranteeing the soul of a culture (chapter 9). Free "
11261 "cultures, like free markets, are built with property. But the nature of the "
11262 "property that builds a free culture is very different from the extremist "
11263 "vision that dominates the debate today."
11266 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11267 #: freeculture.xml:8514
11269 "Free culture is increasingly the casualty in this war on piracy. In response "
11270 "to a real, if not yet quantified, threat that the technologies of the "
11271 "Internet present to twentieth-century business models for producing and "
11272 "distributing culture, the law and technology are being transformed in a way "
11273 "that will undermine our tradition of free culture. The property right that "
11274 "is copyright is no longer the balanced right that it was, or was intended to "
11275 "be. The property right that is copyright has become unbalanced, tilted "
11276 "toward an extreme. The opportunity to create and transform becomes weakened "
11277 "in a world in which creation requires permission and creativity must check "
11281 #. type: Content of: <book><part><title>
11282 #: freeculture.xml:8531
11286 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
11287 #: freeculture.xml:8535
11288 msgid "CHAPTER ELEVEN: Chimera"
11291 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
11292 #: freeculture.xml:8537
11296 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
11297 #: freeculture.xml:8540
11298 msgid "Wells, H. G."
11301 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
11302 #: freeculture.xml:8543
11303 msgid ""Country of the Blind, The" (Wells)"
11307 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
11308 #: freeculture.xml:8551
11310 "H. G. Wells, \"The Country of the Blind\" (1904, 1911). See H. G. Wells, "
11311 "<citetitle>The Country of the Blind and Other Stories</citetitle>, Michael "
11312 "Sherborne, ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996)."
11315 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11316 #: freeculture.xml:8547
11318 "In a well-known short story by H. G. Wells, a mountain climber named Nunez "
11319 "trips (literally, down an ice slope) into an unknown and isolated valley in "
11320 "the Peruvian Andes.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The valley is "
11321 "extraordinarily beautiful, with \"sweet water, pasture, an even climate, "
11322 "slopes of rich brown soil with tangles of a shrub that bore an excellent "
11323 "fruit.\" But the villagers are all blind. Nunez takes this as an "
11324 "opportunity. \"In the Country of the Blind,\" he tells himself, \"the "
11325 "One-Eyed Man is King.\" So he resolves to live with the villagers to explore "
11329 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11330 #: freeculture.xml:8563
11332 "Things don't go quite as he planned. He tries to explain the idea of sight "
11333 "to the villagers. They don't understand. He tells them they are \"blind.\" "
11334 "They don't have the word <citetitle>blind</citetitle>. They think he's just "
11335 "thick. Indeed, as they increasingly notice the things he can't do (hear the "
11336 "sound of grass being stepped on, for example), they increasingly try to "
11337 "control him. He, in turn, becomes increasingly frustrated. \"`You don't "
11338 "understand,' he cried, in a voice that was meant to be great and resolute, "
11339 "and which broke. `You are blind and I can see. Leave me alone!'\""
11343 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11344 #: freeculture.xml:8575
11346 "The villagers don't leave him alone. Nor do they see (so to speak) the "
11347 "virtue of his special power. Not even the ultimate target of his affection, "
11348 "a young woman who to him seems \"the most beautiful thing in the whole of "
11349 "creation,\" understands the beauty of sight. Nunez's description of what he "
11350 "sees \"seemed to her the most poetical of fancies, and she listened to his "
11351 "description of the stars and the mountains and her own sweet white-lit "
11352 "beauty as though it was a guilty indulgence.\" \"She did not believe,\" "
11353 "Wells tells us, and \"she could only half understand, but she was "
11354 "mysteriously delighted.\""
11357 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11358 #: freeculture.xml:8586
11360 "When Nunez announces his desire to marry his \"mysteriously delighted\" "
11361 "love, the father and the village object. \"You see, my dear,\" her father "
11362 "instructs, \"he's an idiot. He has delusions. He can't do anything right.\" "
11363 "They take Nunez to the village doctor."
11366 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11367 #: freeculture.xml:8592
11369 "After a careful examination, the doctor gives his opinion. \"His brain is "
11370 "affected,\" he reports."
11373 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11374 #: freeculture.xml:8596
11376 "\"What affects it?\" the father asks. \"Those queer things that are called "
11377 "the eyes … are diseased … in such a way as to affect his "
11381 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11382 #: freeculture.xml:8601
11384 "The doctor continues: \"I think I may say with reasonable certainty that in "
11385 "order to cure him completely, all that we need to do is a simple and easy "
11386 "surgical operation—namely, to remove these irritant bodies [the "
11391 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11392 #: freeculture.xml:8607
11394 "\"Thank Heaven for science!\" says the father to the doctor. They inform "
11395 "Nunez of this condition necessary for him to be allowed his bride. (You'll "
11396 "have to read the original to learn what happens in the end. I believe in "
11397 "free culture, but never in giving away the end of a story.) It sometimes "
11398 "happens that the eggs of twins fuse in the mother's womb. That fusion "
11399 "produces a \"chimera.\" A chimera is a single creature with two sets of "
11400 "DNA. The DNA in the blood, for example, might be different from the DNA of "
11401 "the skin. This possibility is an underused plot for murder mysteries. \"But "
11402 "the DNA shows with 100 percent certainty that she was not the person whose "
11403 "blood was at the scene. …\""
11406 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11407 #: freeculture.xml:8624
11409 "Before I had read about chimeras, I would have said they were impossible. A "
11410 "single person can't have two sets of DNA. The very idea of DNA is that it is "
11411 "the code of an individual. Yet in fact, not only can two individuals have "
11412 "the same set of DNA (identical twins), but one person can have two different "
11413 "sets of DNA (a chimera). Our understanding of a \"person\" should reflect "
11417 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11418 #: freeculture.xml:8632
11420 "The more I work to understand the current struggle over copyright and "
11421 "culture, which I've sometimes called unfairly, and sometimes not unfairly "
11422 "enough, \"the copyright wars,\" the more I think we're dealing with a "
11423 "chimera. For example, in the battle over the question \"What is p2p file "
11424 "sharing?\" both sides have it right, and both sides have it wrong. One side "
11425 "says, \"File sharing is just like two kids taping each others' "
11426 "records—the sort of thing we've been doing for the last thirty years "
11427 "without any question at all.\" That's true, at least in part. When I tell my "
11428 "best friend to try out a new CD that I've bought, but rather than just send "
11429 "the CD, I point him to my p2p server, that is, in all relevant respects, "
11430 "just like what every executive in every recording company no doubt did as a "
11431 "kid: sharing music."
11434 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11435 #: freeculture.xml:8646
11437 "But the description is also false in part. For when my p2p server is on a "
11438 "p2p network through which anyone can get access to my music, then sure, my "
11439 "friends can get access, but it stretches the meaning of \"friends\" beyond "
11440 "recognition to say \"my ten thousand best friends\" can get access. Whether "
11441 "or not sharing my music with my best friend is what \"we have always been "
11442 "allowed to do,\" we have not always been allowed to share music with \"our "
11443 "ten thousand best friends.\""
11446 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11447 #: freeculture.xml:8655
11449 "Likewise, when the other side says, \"File sharing is just like walking into "
11450 "a Tower Records and taking a CD off the shelf and walking out with it,\" "
11451 "that's true, at least in part. If, after Lyle Lovett (finally) releases a "
11452 "new album, rather than buying it, I go to Kazaa and find a free copy to "
11453 "take, that is very much like stealing a copy from Tower. <placeholder "
11454 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
11458 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11459 #: freeculture.xml:8666
11461 "But it is not quite stealing from Tower. After all, when I take a CD from "
11462 "Tower Records, Tower has one less CD to sell. And when I take a CD from "
11463 "Tower Records, I get a bit of plastic and a cover, and something to show on "
11464 "my shelves. (And, while we're at it, we could also note that when I take a "
11465 "CD from Tower Records, the maximum fine that might be imposed on me, under "
11466 "California law, at least, is $1,000. According to the RIAA, by contrast, if "
11467 "I download a ten-song CD, I'm liable for $1,500,000 in damages.)"
11470 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11471 #: freeculture.xml:8676
11473 "The point is not that it is as neither side describes. The point is that it "
11474 "is both—both as the RIAA describes it and as Kazaa describes it. It is "
11475 "a chimera. And rather than simply denying what the other side asserts, we "
11476 "need to begin to think about how we should respond to this chimera. What "
11477 "rules should govern it?"
11480 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
11481 #: freeculture.xml:8722
11482 msgid "Conyers, John, Jr."
11485 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
11486 #: freeculture.xml:8723 freeculture.xml:9425
11487 msgid "Berman, Howard L."
11490 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
11491 #: freeculture.xml:8692
11493 "For an excellent summary, see the report prepared by GartnerG2 and the "
11494 "Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, \"Copyright "
11495 "and Digital Media in a Post-Napster World,\" 27 June 2003, available at "
11496 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #33</ulink>. Reps. John "
11497 "Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) and Howard L. Berman (D-Calif.) have introduced a bill "
11498 "that would treat unauthorized on-line copying as a felony offense with "
11499 "punishments ranging as high as five years imprisonment; see Jon Healey, "
11500 "\"House Bill Aims to Up Stakes on Piracy,\" <citetitle>Los Angeles "
11501 "Times</citetitle>, 17 July 2003, available at <ulink "
11502 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #34</ulink>. Civil penalties are "
11503 "currently set at $150,000 per copied song. For a recent (and unsuccessful) "
11504 "legal challenge to the RIAA's demand that an ISP reveal the identity of a "
11505 "user accused of sharing more than 600 songs through a family computer, see "
11506 "<citetitle>RIAA</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Verizon Internet Services (In "
11507 "re. Verizon Internet Services)</citetitle>, 240 F. Supp. 2d 24 "
11508 "(D.D.C. 2003). Such a user could face liability ranging as high as $90 "
11509 "million. Such astronomical figures furnish the RIAA with a powerful arsenal "
11510 "in its prosecution of file sharers. Settlements ranging from $12,000 to "
11511 "$17,500 for four students accused of heavy file sharing on university "
11512 "networks must have seemed a mere pittance next to the $98 billion the RIAA "
11513 "could seek should the matter proceed to court. See Elizabeth Young, "
11514 "\"Downloading Could Lead to Fines,\" redandblack.com, August 2003, available "
11515 "at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #35</ulink>. For an "
11516 "example of the RIAA's targeting of student file sharing, and of the "
11517 "subpoenas issued to universities to reveal student file-sharer identities, "
11518 "see James Collins, \"RIAA Steps Up Bid to Force BC, MIT to Name Students,\" "
11519 "<citetitle>Boston Globe</citetitle>, 8 August 2003, D3, available at <ulink "
11520 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #36</ulink>. <placeholder "
11521 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
11524 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11525 #: freeculture.xml:8683
11527 "We could respond by simply pretending that it is not a chimera. We could, "
11528 "with the RIAA, decide that every act of file sharing should be a felony. We "
11529 "could prosecute families for millions of dollars in damages just because "
11530 "file sharing occurred on a family computer. And we can get universities to "
11531 "monitor all computer traffic to make sure that no computer is used to commit "
11532 "this crime. These responses might be extreme, but each of them has either "
11533 "been proposed or actually implemented.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
11537 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11538 #: freeculture.xml:8729
11540 "Alternatively, we could respond to file sharing the way many kids act as "
11541 "though we've responded. We could totally legalize it. Let there be no "
11542 "copyright liability, either civil or criminal, for making copyrighted "
11543 "content available on the Net. Make file sharing like gossip: regulated, if "
11544 "at all, by social norms but not by law."
11547 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11548 #: freeculture.xml:8736
11550 "Either response is possible. I think either would be a mistake. Rather than "
11551 "embrace one of these two extremes, we should embrace something that "
11552 "recognizes the truth in both. And while I end this book with a sketch of a "
11553 "system that does just that, my aim in the next chapter is to show just how "
11554 "awful it would be for us to adopt the zero-tolerance extreme. I believe "
11555 "<emphasis>either</emphasis> extreme would be worse than a reasonable "
11556 "alternative. But I believe the zero-tolerance solution would be the worse "
11557 "of the two extremes."
11561 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11562 #: freeculture.xml:8748
11564 "Yet zero tolerance is increasingly our government's policy. In the middle of "
11565 "the chaos that the Internet has created, an extraordinary land grab is "
11566 "occurring. The law and technology are being shifted to give content holders "
11567 "a kind of control over our culture that they have never had before. And in "
11568 "this extremism, many an opportunity for new innovation and new creativity "
11572 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11573 #: freeculture.xml:8756
11575 "I'm not talking about the opportunities for kids to \"steal\" music. My "
11576 "focus instead is the commercial and cultural innovation that this war will "
11577 "also kill. We have never seen the power to innovate spread so broadly among "
11578 "our citizens, and we have just begun to see the innovation that this power "
11579 "will unleash. Yet the Internet has already seen the passing of one cycle of "
11580 "innovation around technologies to distribute content. The law is responsible "
11581 "for this passing. As the vice president for global public policy at one of "
11582 "these new innovators, eMusic.com, put it when criticizing the DMCA's added "
11583 "protection for copyrighted material,"
11586 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
11587 #: freeculture.xml:8769
11589 "eMusic opposes music piracy. We are a distributor of copyrighted material, "
11590 "and we want to protect those rights."
11593 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
11594 #: freeculture.xml:8773
11596 "But building a technology fortress that locks in the clout of the major "
11597 "labels is by no means the only way to protect copyright interests, nor is it "
11598 "necessarily the best. It is simply too early to answer that question. Market "
11599 "forces operating naturally may very well produce a totally different "
11604 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
11605 #: freeculture.xml:8790
11607 "WIPO and the DMCA One Year Later: Assessing Consumer Access to Digital "
11608 "Entertainment on the Internet and Other Media: Hearing Before the "
11609 "Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade, and Consumer Protection, House "
11610 "Committee on Commerce, 106th Cong. 29 (1999) (statement of Peter Harter, "
11611 "vice president, Global Public Policy and Standards, EMusic.com), available "
11612 "in LEXIS, Federal Document Clearing House Congressional Testimony File."
11615 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
11616 #: freeculture.xml:8780
11618 "This is a critical point. The choices that industry sectors make with "
11619 "respect to these systems will in many ways directly shape the market for "
11620 "digital media and the manner in which digital media are distributed. This in "
11621 "turn will directly influence the options that are available to consumers, "
11622 "both in terms of the ease with which they will be able to access digital "
11623 "media and the equipment that they will require to do so. Poor choices made "
11624 "this early in the game will retard the growth of this market, hurting "
11625 "everyone's interests.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
11628 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11629 #: freeculture.xml:8804 freeculture.xml:9154
11630 msgid "Vivendi Universal"
11633 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11634 #: freeculture.xml:8801
11636 "In April 2001, eMusic.com was purchased by Vivendi Universal, one of \"the "
11637 "major labels.\" Its position on these matters has now changed. <placeholder "
11638 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
11641 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11642 #: freeculture.xml:8807
11644 "Reversing our tradition of tolerance now will not merely quash piracy. It "
11645 "will sacrifice values that are important to this culture, and will kill "
11646 "opportunities that could be extraordinarily valuable."
11649 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
11650 #: freeculture.xml:8815
11651 msgid "CHAPTER TWELVE: Harms"
11654 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11655 #: freeculture.xml:8817
11657 "To fight \"piracy,\" to protect \"property,\" the content industry has "
11658 "launched a war. Lobbying and lots of campaign contributions have now brought "
11659 "the government into this war. As with any war, this one will have both "
11660 "direct and collateral damage. As with any war of prohibition, these damages "
11661 "will be suffered most by our own people."
11664 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11665 #: freeculture.xml:8824
11667 "My aim so far has been to describe the consequences of this war, in "
11668 "particular, the consequences for \"free culture.\" But my aim now is to "
11669 "extend this description of consequences into an argument. Is this war "
11673 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11674 #: freeculture.xml:8830
11676 "In my view, it is not. There is no good reason why this time, for the first "
11677 "time, the law should defend the old against the new, just when the power of "
11678 "the property called \"intellectual property\" is at its greatest in our "
11682 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11683 #: freeculture.xml:8838
11685 "Yet \"common sense\" does not see it this way. Common sense is still on the "
11686 "side of the Causbys and the content industry. The extreme claims of control "
11687 "in the name of property still resonate; the uncritical rejection of "
11688 "\"piracy\" still has play."
11692 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11693 #: freeculture.xml:8845
11695 "There will be many consequences of continuing this war. I want to describe "
11696 "just three. All three might be said to be unintended. I am quite confident "
11697 "the third is unintended. I'm less sure about the first two. The first two "
11698 "protect modern RCAs, but there is no Howard Armstrong in the wings to fight "
11699 "today's monopolists of culture."
11702 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
11703 #: freeculture.xml:8852
11704 msgid "Constraining Creators"
11707 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11708 #: freeculture.xml:8854
11710 "In the next ten years we will see an explosion of digital technologies. "
11711 "These technologies will enable almost anyone to capture and share "
11712 "content. Capturing and sharing content, of course, is what humans have done "
11713 "since the dawn of man. It is how we learn and communicate. But capturing and "
11714 "sharing through digital technology is different. The fidelity and power are "
11715 "different. You could send an e-mail telling someone about a joke you saw on "
11716 "Comedy Central, or you could send the clip. You could write an essay about "
11717 "the inconsistencies in the arguments of the politician you most love to "
11718 "hate, or you could make a short film that puts statement against "
11719 "statement. You could write a poem to express your love, or you could weave "
11720 "together a string—a mash-up— of songs from your favorite artists "
11721 "in a collage and make it available on the Net."
11724 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11725 #: freeculture.xml:8869
11727 "This digital \"capturing and sharing\" is in part an extension of the "
11728 "capturing and sharing that has always been integral to our culture, and in "
11729 "part it is something new. It is continuous with the Kodak, but it explodes "
11730 "the boundaries of Kodak-like technologies. The technology of digital "
11731 "\"capturing and sharing\" promises a world of extraordinarily diverse "
11732 "creativity that can be easily and broadly shared. And as that creativity is "
11733 "applied to democracy, it will enable a broad range of citizens to use "
11734 "technology to express and criticize and contribute to the culture all "
11739 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11740 #: freeculture.xml:8880
11742 "Technology has thus given us an opportunity to do something with culture "
11743 "that has only ever been possible for individuals in small groups, isolated "
11744 "from others. Think about an old man telling a story to a collection of "
11745 "neighbors in a small town. Now imagine that same storytelling extended "
11746 "across the globe."
11749 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11750 #: freeculture.xml:8890
11752 "Yet all this is possible only if the activity is presumptively legal. In the "
11753 "current regime of legal regulation, it is not. Forget file sharing for a "
11754 "moment. Think about your favorite amazing sites on the Net. Web sites that "
11755 "offer plot summaries from forgotten television shows; sites that catalog "
11756 "cartoons from the 1960s; sites that mix images and sound to criticize "
11757 "politicians or businesses; sites that gather newspaper articles on remote "
11758 "topics of science or culture. There is a vast amount of creative work spread "
11759 "across the Internet. But as the law is currently crafted, this work is "
11760 "presumptively illegal."
11763 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
11764 #: freeculture.xml:8918 freeculture.xml:8939
11768 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11769 #: freeculture.xml:8913
11771 "See Lynne W. Jeter, <citetitle>Disconnected: Deceit and Betrayal at "
11772 "WorldCom</citetitle> (Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2003), 176, 204; "
11773 "for details of the settlement, see MCI press release, \"MCI Wins "
11774 "U.S. District Court Approval for SEC Settlement\" (7 July 2003), available "
11775 "at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #37</ulink>. "
11776 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
11779 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
11780 #: freeculture.xml:8934
11781 msgid "Bush, George W."
11784 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11785 #: freeculture.xml:8925
11787 "The bill, modeled after California's tort reform model, was passed in the "
11788 "House of Representatives but defeated in a Senate vote in July 2003. For an "
11789 "overview, see Tanya Albert, \"Measure Stalls in Senate: `We'll Be Back,' Say "
11790 "Tort Reformers,\" amednews.com, 28 July 2003, available at <ulink "
11791 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #38</ulink>, and \"Senate Turns "
11792 "Back Malpractice Caps,\" CBSNews.com, 9 July 2003, available at <ulink "
11793 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #39</ulink>. President Bush has "
11794 "continued to urge tort reform in recent months. <placeholder "
11795 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
11798 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11799 #: freeculture.xml:8901
11801 "That presumption will increasingly chill creativity, as the examples of "
11802 "extreme penalties for vague infringements continue to proliferate. It is "
11803 "impossible to get a clear sense of what's allowed and what's not, and at the "
11804 "same time, the penalties for crossing the line are astonishingly harsh. The "
11805 "four students who were threatened by the RIAA ( Jesse Jordan of chapter 3 "
11806 "was just one) were threatened with a $98 billion lawsuit for building search "
11807 "engines that permitted songs to be copied. Yet World-Com—which "
11808 "defrauded investors of $11 billion, resulting in a loss to investors in "
11809 "market capitalization of over $200 billion—received a fine of a mere "
11810 "$750 million.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> And under legislation "
11811 "being pushed in Congress right now, a doctor who negligently removes the "
11812 "wrong leg in an operation would be liable for no more than $250,000 in "
11813 "damages for pain and suffering.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> Can "
11814 "common sense recognize the absurdity in a world where the maximum fine for "
11815 "downloading two songs off the Internet is more than the fine for a doctor's "
11816 "negligently butchering a patient? <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/>"
11820 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11821 #: freeculture.xml:8961
11823 "See Danit Lidor, \"Artists Just Wanna Be Free,\" "
11824 "<citetitle>Wired</citetitle>, 7 July 2003, available at <ulink "
11825 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #40</ulink>. For an overview of "
11826 "the exhibition, see <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
11830 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11831 #: freeculture.xml:8942
11833 "The consequence of this legal uncertainty, tied to these extremely high "
11834 "penalties, is that an extraordinary amount of creativity will either never "
11835 "be exercised, or never be exercised in the open. We drive this creative "
11836 "process underground by branding the modern-day Walt Disneys \"pirates.\" We "
11837 "make it impossible for businesses to rely upon a public domain, because the "
11838 "boundaries of the public domain are designed to be unclear. It never pays to "
11839 "do anything except pay for the right to create, and hence only those who can "
11840 "pay are allowed to create. As was the case in the Soviet Union, though for "
11841 "very different reasons, we will begin to see a world of underground "
11842 "art—not because the message is necessarily political, or because the "
11843 "subject is controversial, but because the very act of creating the art is "
11844 "legally fraught. Already, exhibits of \"illegal art\" tour the United "
11845 "States.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> In what does their "
11846 "\"illegality\" consist? In the act of mixing the culture around us with an "
11847 "expression that is critical or reflective."
11850 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11851 #: freeculture.xml:8971
11853 "Part of the reason for this fear of illegality has to do with the changing "
11854 "law. I described that change in detail in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: "
11855 "labelnumber\" linkend=\"property-i\"/>. But an even bigger part has to do "
11856 "with the increasing ease with which infractions can be tracked. As users of "
11857 "file-sharing systems discovered in 2002, it is a trivial matter for "
11858 "copyright owners to get courts to order Internet service providers to reveal "
11859 "who has what content. It is as if your cassette tape player transmitted a "
11860 "list of the songs that you played in the privacy of your own home that "
11861 "anyone could tune into for whatever reason they chose."
11864 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11865 #: freeculture.xml:8983
11867 "Never in our history has a painter had to worry about whether his painting "
11868 "infringed on someone else's work; but the modern-day painter, using the "
11869 "tools of Photoshop, sharing content on the Web, must worry all the "
11870 "time. Images are all around, but the only safe images to use in the act of "
11871 "creation are those purchased from Corbis or another image farm. And in "
11872 "purchasing, censoring happens. There is a free market in pencils; we needn't "
11873 "worry about its effect on creativity. But there is a highly regulated, "
11874 "monopolized market in cultural icons; the right to cultivate and transform "
11875 "them is not similarly free."
11878 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11879 #: freeculture.xml:8994
11881 "Lawyers rarely see this because lawyers are rarely empirical. As I described "
11882 "in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"recorders\"/>, "
11883 "in response to the story about documentary filmmaker Jon Else, I have been "
11884 "lectured again and again by lawyers who insist Else's use was fair use, and "
11885 "hence I am wrong to say that the law regulates such a use."
11889 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11890 #: freeculture.xml:9005
11892 "But fair use in America simply means the right to hire a lawyer to defend "
11893 "your right to create. And as lawyers love to forget, our system for "
11894 "defending rights such as fair use is astonishingly bad—in practically "
11895 "every context, but especially here. It costs too much, it delivers too "
11896 "slowly, and what it delivers often has little connection to the justice "
11897 "underlying the claim. The legal system may be tolerable for the very rich. "
11898 "For everyone else, it is an embarrassment to a tradition that prides itself "
11899 "on the rule of law."
11902 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11903 #: freeculture.xml:9015
11905 "Judges and lawyers can tell themselves that fair use provides adequate "
11906 "\"breathing room\" between regulation by the law and the access the law "
11907 "should allow. But it is a measure of how out of touch our legal system has "
11908 "become that anyone actually believes this. The rules that publishers impose "
11909 "upon writers, the rules that film distributors impose upon filmmakers, the "
11910 "rules that newspapers impose upon journalists— these are the real laws "
11911 "governing creativity. And these rules have little relationship to the "
11912 "\"law\" with which judges comfort themselves."
11915 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11916 #: freeculture.xml:9026
11918 "For in a world that threatens $150,000 for a single willful infringement of "
11919 "a copyright, and which demands tens of thousands of dollars to even defend "
11920 "against a copyright infringement claim, and which would never return to the "
11921 "wrongfully accused defendant anything of the costs she suffered to defend "
11922 "her right to speak—in that world, the astonishingly broad regulations "
11923 "that pass under the name \"copyright\" silence speech and creativity. And in "
11924 "that world, it takes a studied blindness for people to continue to believe "
11925 "they live in a culture that is free."
11928 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11929 #: freeculture.xml:9037
11930 msgid "As Jed Horovitz, the businessman behind Video Pipeline, said to me,"
11934 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
11935 #: freeculture.xml:9041
11937 "We're losing [creative] opportunities right and left. Creative people are "
11938 "being forced not to express themselves. Thoughts are not being "
11939 "expressed. And while a lot of stuff may [still] be created, it still won't "
11940 "get distributed. Even if the stuff gets made … you're not going to "
11941 "get it distributed in the mainstream media unless you've got a little note "
11942 "from a lawyer saying, \"This has been cleared.\" You're not even going to "
11943 "get it on PBS without that kind of permission. That's the point at which "
11947 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
11948 #: freeculture.xml:9054
11949 msgid "Constraining Innovators"
11952 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11953 #: freeculture.xml:9056
11955 "The story of the last section was a crunchy-lefty story—creativity "
11956 "quashed, artists who can't speak, yada yada yada. Maybe that doesn't get you "
11957 "going. Maybe you think there's enough weird art out there, and enough "
11958 "expression that is critical of what seems to be just about everything. And "
11959 "if you think that, you might think there's little in this story to worry "
11963 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11964 #: freeculture.xml:9064
11966 "But there's an aspect of this story that is not lefty in any sense. Indeed, "
11967 "it is an aspect that could be written by the most extreme promarket "
11968 "ideologue. And if you're one of these sorts (and a special one at that, 188 "
11969 "pages into a book like this), then you can see this other aspect by "
11970 "substituting \"free market\" every place I've spoken of \"free culture.\" "
11971 "The point is the same, even if the interests affecting culture are more "
11975 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11976 #: freeculture.xml:9073
11978 "The charge I've been making about the regulation of culture is the same "
11979 "charge free marketers make about regulating markets. Everyone, of course, "
11980 "concedes that some regulation of markets is necessary—at a minimum, we "
11981 "need rules of property and contract, and courts to enforce both. Likewise, "
11982 "in this culture debate, everyone concedes that at least some framework of "
11983 "copyright is also required. But both perspectives vehemently insist that "
11984 "just because some regulation is good, it doesn't follow that more regulation "
11985 "is better. And both perspectives are constantly attuned to the ways in which "
11986 "regulation simply enables the powerful industries of today to protect "
11987 "themselves against the competitors of tomorrow."
11990 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11991 #: freeculture.xml:9085 freeculture.xml:9192
11992 msgid "Barry, Hank"
11996 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11997 #: freeculture.xml:9087
11999 "This is the single most dramatic effect of the shift in regulatory strategy "
12000 "that I described in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
12001 "linkend=\"property-i\"/>. The consequence of this massive threat of "
12002 "liability tied to the murky boundaries of copyright law is that innovators "
12003 "who want to innovate in this space can safely innovate only if they have the "
12004 "sign-off from last generation's dominant industries. That lesson has been "
12005 "taught through a series of cases that were designed and executed to teach "
12006 "venture capitalists a lesson. That lesson—what former Napster CEO Hank "
12007 "Barry calls a \"nuclear pall\" that has fallen over the Valley—has "
12011 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12012 #: freeculture.xml:9100
12014 "Consider one example to make the point, a story whose beginning I told in "
12015 "<citetitle>The Future of Ideas</citetitle> and which has progressed in a way "
12016 "that even I (pessimist extraordinaire) would never have predicted."
12019 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12020 #: freeculture.xml:9105
12022 "In 1997, Michael Roberts launched a company called MP3.com. MP3.com was "
12023 "keen to remake the music business. Their goal was not just to facilitate new "
12024 "ways to get access to content. Their goal was also to facilitate new ways to "
12025 "create content. Unlike the major labels, MP3.com offered creators a venue to "
12026 "distribute their creativity, without demanding an exclusive engagement from "
12030 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12031 #: freeculture.xml:9113
12033 "To make this system work, however, MP3.com needed a reliable way to "
12034 "recommend music to its users. The idea behind this alternative was to "
12035 "leverage the revealed preferences of music listeners to recommend new "
12036 "artists. If you like Lyle Lovett, you're likely to enjoy Bonnie Raitt. And "
12037 "so on. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
12040 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12041 #: freeculture.xml:9121
12043 "This idea required a simple way to gather data about user preferences. "
12044 "MP3.com came up with an extraordinarily clever way to gather this preference "
12045 "data. In January 2000, the company launched a service called "
12046 "my.mp3.com. Using software provided by MP3.com, a user would sign into an "
12047 "account and then insert into her computer a CD. The software would identify "
12048 "the CD, and then give the user access to that content. So, for example, if "
12049 "you inserted a CD by Jill Sobule, then wherever you were—at work or at "
12050 "home—you could get access to that music once you signed into your "
12051 "account. The system was therefore a kind of music-lockbox."
12055 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12056 #: freeculture.xml:9133
12058 "No doubt some could use this system to illegally copy content. But that "
12059 "opportunity existed with or without MP3.com. The aim of the my.mp3.com "
12060 "service was to give users access to their own content, and as a by-product, "
12061 "by seeing the content they already owned, to discover the kind of content "
12065 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12066 #: freeculture.xml:9142
12068 "To make this system function, however, MP3.com needed to copy 50,000 CDs to "
12069 "a server. (In principle, it could have been the user who uploaded the music, "
12070 "but that would have taken a great deal of time, and would have produced a "
12071 "product of questionable quality.) It therefore purchased 50,000 CDs from a "
12072 "store, and started the process of making copies of those CDs. Again, it "
12073 "would not serve the content from those copies to anyone except those who "
12074 "authenticated that they had a copy of the CD they wanted to access. So while "
12075 "this was 50,000 copies, it was 50,000 copies directed at giving customers "
12076 "something they had already bought."
12079 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12080 #: freeculture.xml:9157
12082 "Nine days after MP3.com launched its service, the five major labels, headed "
12083 "by the RIAA, brought a lawsuit against MP3.com. MP3.com settled with four of "
12084 "the five. Nine months later, a federal judge found MP3.com to have been "
12085 "guilty of willful infringement with respect to the fifth. Applying the law "
12086 "as it is, the judge imposed a fine against MP3.com of $118 million. MP3.com "
12087 "then settled with the remaining plaintiff, Vivendi Universal, paying over "
12088 "$54 million. Vivendi purchased MP3.com just about a year later."
12091 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12092 #: freeculture.xml:9167
12093 msgid "That part of the story I have told before. Now consider its conclusion."
12096 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12097 #: freeculture.xml:9170
12099 "After Vivendi purchased MP3.com, Vivendi turned around and filed a "
12100 "malpractice lawsuit against the lawyers who had advised it that they had a "
12101 "good faith claim that the service they wanted to offer would be considered "
12102 "legal under copyright law. This lawsuit alleged that it should have been "
12103 "obvious that the courts would find this behavior illegal; therefore, this "
12104 "lawsuit sought to punish any lawyer who had dared to suggest that the law "
12105 "was less restrictive than the labels demanded."
12109 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12110 #: freeculture.xml:9180
12112 "The clear purpose of this lawsuit (which was settled for an unspecified "
12113 "amount shortly after the story was no longer covered in the press) was to "
12114 "send an unequivocal message to lawyers advising clients in this space: It is "
12115 "not just your clients who might suffer if the content industry directs its "
12116 "guns against them. It is also you. So those of you who believe the law "
12117 "should be less restrictive should realize that such a view of the law will "
12118 "cost you and your firm dearly."
12121 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
12122 #: freeculture.xml:9191
12123 msgid "Hummer, John"
12127 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12128 #: freeculture.xml:9200
12130 "See Joseph Menn, \"Universal, EMI Sue Napster Investor,\" <citetitle>Los "
12131 "Angeles Times</citetitle>, 23 April 2003. For a parallel argument about the "
12132 "effects on innovation in the distribution of music, see Janelle Brown, \"The "
12133 "Music Revolution Will Not Be Digitized,\" Salon.com, 1 June 2001, available "
12134 "at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #42</ulink>. See also "
12135 "Jon Healey, \"Online Music Services Besieged,\" <citetitle>Los Angeles "
12136 "Times</citetitle>, 28 May 2001."
12139 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12140 #: freeculture.xml:9194
12142 "This strategy is not just limited to the lawyers. In April 2003, Universal "
12143 "and EMI brought a lawsuit against Hummer Winblad, the venture capital firm "
12144 "(VC) that had funded Napster at a certain stage of its development, its "
12145 "cofounder ( John Hummer), and general partner (Hank Barry).<placeholder "
12146 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The claim here, as well, was that the VC should "
12147 "have recognized the right of the content industry to control how the "
12148 "industry should develop. They should be held personally liable for funding a "
12149 "company whose business turned out to be beyond the law. Here again, the aim "
12150 "of the lawsuit is transparent: Any VC now recognizes that if you fund a "
12151 "company whose business is not approved of by the dinosaurs, you are at risk "
12152 "not just in the marketplace, but in the courtroom as well. Your investment "
12153 "buys you not only a company, it also buys you a lawsuit. So extreme has the "
12154 "environment become that even car manufacturers are afraid of technologies "
12155 "that touch content. In an article in <citetitle>Business 2.0</citetitle>, "
12156 "Rafe Needleman describes a discussion with BMW: <placeholder "
12157 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/>"
12160 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><indexterm><primary>
12161 #: freeculture.xml:9224
12165 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
12166 #: freeculture.xml:9239
12167 msgid "Needleman, Rafe"
12170 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
12171 #: freeculture.xml:9235
12173 "Rafe Needleman, \"Driving in Cars with MP3s,\" <citetitle>Business "
12174 "2.0</citetitle>, 16 June 2003, available at <ulink "
12175 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #43</ulink>. I am grateful to "
12176 "Dr. Mohammad Al-Ubaydli for this example. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
12180 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
12181 #: freeculture.xml:9226
12183 "I asked why, with all the storage capacity and computer power in the car, "
12184 "there was no way to play MP3 files. I was told that BMW engineers in Germany "
12185 "had rigged a new vehicle to play MP3s via the car's built-in sound system, "
12186 "but that the company's marketing and legal departments weren't comfortable "
12187 "with pushing this forward for release stateside. Even today, no new cars are "
12188 "sold in the United States with bona fide MP3 players. … <placeholder "
12189 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
12192 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12193 #: freeculture.xml:9244
12195 "This is the world of the mafia—filled with \"your money or your life\" "
12196 "offers, governed in the end not by courts but by the threats that the law "
12197 "empowers copyright holders to exercise. It is a system that will obviously "
12198 "and necessarily stifle new innovation. It is hard enough to start a "
12199 "company. It is impossibly hard if that company is constantly threatened by "
12204 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12205 #: freeculture.xml:9254
12207 "The point is not that businesses should have a right to start illegal "
12208 "enterprises. The point is the definition of \"illegal.\" The law is a mess "
12209 "of uncertainty. We have no good way to know how it should apply to new "
12210 "technologies. Yet by reversing our tradition of judicial deference, and by "
12211 "embracing the astonishingly high penalties that copyright law imposes, that "
12212 "uncertainty now yields a reality which is far more conservative than is "
12213 "right. If the law imposed the death penalty for parking tickets, we'd not "
12214 "only have fewer parking tickets, we'd also have much less driving. The same "
12215 "principle applies to innovation. If innovation is constantly checked by this "
12216 "uncertain and unlimited liability, we will have much less vibrant innovation "
12217 "and much less creativity."
12220 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12221 #: freeculture.xml:9268
12223 "The point is directly parallel to the crunchy-lefty point about fair "
12224 "use. Whatever the \"real\" law is, realism about the effect of law in both "
12225 "contexts is the same. This wildly punitive system of regulation will "
12226 "systematically stifle creativity and innovation. It will protect some "
12227 "industries and some creators, but it will harm industry and creativity "
12228 "generally. Free market and free culture depend upon vibrant competition. "
12229 "Yet the effect of the law today is to stifle just this kind of competition. "
12230 "The effect is to produce an overregulated culture, just as the effect of too "
12231 "much control in the market is to produce an overregulatedregulated market."
12235 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12236 #: freeculture.xml:9280
12238 "The building of a permission culture, rather than a free culture, is the "
12239 "first important way in which the changes I have described will burden "
12240 "innovation. A permission culture means a lawyer's culture—a culture in "
12241 "which the ability to create requires a call to your lawyer. Again, I am not "
12242 "antilawyer, at least when they're kept in their proper place. I am certainly "
12243 "not antilaw. But our profession has lost the sense of its limits. And "
12244 "leaders in our profession have lost an appreciation of the high costs that "
12245 "our profession imposes upon others. The inefficiency of the law is an "
12246 "embarrassment to our tradition. And while I believe our profession should "
12247 "therefore do everything it can to make the law more efficient, it should at "
12248 "least do everything it can to limit the reach of the law where the law is "
12249 "not doing any good. The transaction costs buried within a permission culture "
12250 "are enough to bury a wide range of creativity. Someone needs to do a lot of "
12251 "justifying to justify that result. The uncertainty of the law is one burden "
12252 "on innovation. There is a second burden that operates more directly. This is "
12253 "the effort by many in the content industry to use the law to directly "
12254 "regulate the technology of the Internet so that it better protects their "
12258 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12259 #: freeculture.xml:9302
12261 "The motivation for this response is obvious. The Internet enables the "
12262 "efficient spread of content. That efficiency is a feature of the Internet's "
12263 "design. But from the perspective of the content industry, this feature is a "
12264 "\"bug.\" The efficient spread of content means that content distributors "
12265 "have a harder time controlling the distribution of content. One obvious "
12266 "response to this efficiency is thus to make the Internet less efficient. If "
12267 "the Internet enables \"piracy,\" then, this response says, we should break "
12268 "the kneecaps of the Internet."
12272 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12273 #: freeculture.xml:9316
12275 "\"Copyright and Digital Media in a Post-Napster World,\" GartnerG2 and the "
12276 "Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School (2003), "
12277 "33–35, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
12282 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12283 #: freeculture.xml:9329
12284 msgid "GartnerG2, 26–27."
12287 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12288 #: freeculture.xml:9312
12290 "The examples of this form of legislation are many. At the urging of the "
12291 "content industry, some in Congress have threatened legislation that would "
12292 "require computers to determine whether the content they access is protected "
12293 "or not, and to disable the spread of protected content.<placeholder "
12294 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Congress has already launched proceedings to "
12295 "explore a mandatory \"broadcast flag\" that would be required on any device "
12296 "capable of transmitting digital video (i.e., a computer), and that would "
12297 "disable the copying of any content that is marked with a broadcast "
12298 "flag. Other members of Congress have proposed immunizing content providers "
12299 "from liability for technology they might deploy that would hunt down "
12300 "copyright violators and disable their machines.<placeholder "
12301 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
12305 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12306 #: freeculture.xml:9333
12308 "In one sense, these solutions seem sensible. If the problem is the code, why "
12309 "not regulate the code to remove the problem. But any regulation of technical "
12310 "infrastructure will always be tuned to the particular technology of the "
12311 "day. It will impose significant burdens and costs on the technology, but "
12312 "will likely be eclipsed by advances around exactly those requirements."
12316 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12317 #: freeculture.xml:9347
12319 "See David McGuire, \"Tech Execs Square Off Over Piracy,\" Newsbytes, "
12320 "February 2002 (Entertainment)."
12323 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
12324 #: freeculture.xml:9353 freeculture.xml:11162
12328 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12329 #: freeculture.xml:9343
12331 "In March 2002, a broad coalition of technology companies, led by Intel, "
12332 "tried to get Congress to see the harm that such legislation would "
12333 "impose.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Their argument was "
12334 "obviously not that copyright should not be protected. Instead, they argued, "
12335 "any protection should not do more harm than good. <placeholder "
12336 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
12339 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12340 #: freeculture.xml:9356
12342 "There is one more obvious way in which this war has harmed "
12343 "innovation—again, a story that will be quite familiar to the free "
12347 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12348 #: freeculture.xml:9361
12350 "Copyright may be property, but like all property, it is also a form of "
12351 "regulation. It is a regulation that benefits some and harms others. When "
12352 "done right, it benefits creators and harms leeches. When done wrong, it is "
12353 "regulation the powerful use to defeat competitors."
12356 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12357 #: freeculture.xml:9373
12359 "Jessica Litman, <citetitle>Digital Copyright</citetitle> (Amherst, N.Y.: "
12360 "Prometheus Books, 2001). <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
12363 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12364 #: freeculture.xml:9367
12366 "As I described in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
12367 "linkend=\"property-i\"/>, despite this feature of copyright as regulation, "
12368 "and subject to important qualifications outlined by Jessica Litman in her "
12369 "book <citetitle>Digital Copyright</citetitle>,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
12370 "id=\"0\"/> overall this history of copyright is not bad. As chapter 10 "
12371 "details, when new technologies have come along, Congress has struck a "
12372 "balance to assure that the new is protected from the old. Compulsory, or "
12373 "statutory, licenses have been one part of that strategy. Free use (as in the "
12374 "case of the VCR) has been another."
12377 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12378 #: freeculture.xml:9384
12380 "But that pattern of deference to new technologies has now changed with the "
12381 "rise of the Internet. Rather than striking a balance between the claims of a "
12382 "new technology and the legitimate rights of content creators, both the "
12383 "courts and Congress have imposed legal restrictions that will have the "
12384 "effect of smothering the new to benefit the old."
12388 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12389 #: freeculture.xml:9393
12391 "The only circuit court exception is found in <citetitle>Recording Industry "
12392 "Association of America (RIAA)</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Diamond Multimedia "
12393 "Systems</citetitle>, 180 F. 3d 1072 (9th Cir. 1999). There the court of "
12394 "appeals for the Ninth Circuit reasoned that makers of a portable MP3 player "
12395 "were not liable for contributory copyright infringement for a device that is "
12396 "unable to record or redistribute music (a device whose only copying function "
12397 "is to render portable a music file already stored on a user's hard drive). "
12398 "At the district court level, the only exception is found in "
12399 "<citetitle>Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, "
12400 "Inc</citetitle>. v. <citetitle>Grokster, Ltd</citetitle>., 259 F. Supp. 2d "
12401 "1029 (C.D. Cal., 2003), where the court found the link between the "
12402 "distributor and any given user's conduct too attenuated to make the "
12403 "distributor liable for contributory or vicarious infringement liability."
12406 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12407 #: freeculture.xml:9411
12409 "For example, in July 2002, Representative Howard Berman introduced the "
12410 "Peer-to-Peer Piracy Prevention Act (H.R. 5211), which would immunize "
12411 "copyright holders from liability for damage done to computers when the "
12412 "copyright holders use technology to stop copyright infringement. In August "
12413 "2002, Representative Billy Tauzin introduced a bill to mandate that "
12414 "technologies capable of rebroadcasting digital copies of films broadcast on "
12415 "TV (i.e., computers) respect a \"broadcast flag\" that would disable copying "
12416 "of that content. And in March of the same year, Senator Fritz Hollings "
12417 "introduced the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act, "
12418 "which mandated copyright protection technology in all digital media "
12419 "devices. See GartnerG2, \"Copyright and Digital Media in a Post-Napster "
12420 "World,\" 27 June 2003, 33–34, available at <ulink "
12421 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #44</ulink>. <placeholder "
12422 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
12425 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12426 #: freeculture.xml:9391
12428 "The response by the courts has been fairly universal.<placeholder "
12429 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> It has been mirrored in the responses "
12430 "threatened and actually implemented by Congress. I won't catalog all of "
12431 "those responses here.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> But there is "
12432 "one example that captures the flavor of them all. This is the story of the "
12433 "demise of Internet radio."
12436 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12437 #: freeculture.xml:9433
12439 "As I described in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
12440 "linkend=\"pirates\"/>, when a radio station plays a song, the recording "
12441 "artist doesn't get paid for that \"radio performance\" unless he or she is "
12442 "also the composer. So, for example if Marilyn Monroe had recorded a version "
12443 "of \"Happy Birthday\"—to memorialize her famous performance before "
12444 "President Kennedy at Madison Square Garden— then whenever that "
12445 "recording was played on the radio, the current copyright owners of \"Happy "
12446 "Birthday\" would get some money, whereas Marilyn Monroe would not. "
12447 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
12450 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12451 #: freeculture.xml:9445
12453 "The reasoning behind this balance struck by Congress makes some sense. The "
12454 "justification was that radio was a kind of advertising. The recording artist "
12455 "thus benefited because by playing her music, the radio station was making it "
12456 "more likely that her records would be purchased. Thus, the recording artist "
12457 "got something, even if only indirectly. Probably this reasoning had less to "
12458 "do with the result than with the power of radio stations: Their lobbyists "
12459 "were quite good at stopping any efforts to get Congress to require "
12460 "compensation to the recording artists."
12463 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12464 #: freeculture.xml:9456
12466 "Enter Internet radio. Like regular radio, Internet radio is a technology to "
12467 "stream content from a broadcaster to a listener. The broadcast travels "
12468 "across the Internet, not across the ether of radio spectrum. Thus, I can "
12469 "\"tune in\" to an Internet radio station in Berlin while sitting in San "
12470 "Francisco, even though there's no way for me to tune in to a regular radio "
12471 "station much beyond the San Francisco metropolitan area."
12474 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12475 #: freeculture.xml:9465
12477 "This feature of the architecture of Internet radio means that there are "
12478 "potentially an unlimited number of radio stations that a user could tune in "
12479 "to using her computer, whereas under the existing architecture for broadcast "
12480 "radio, there is an obvious limit to the number of broadcasters and clear "
12481 "broadcast frequencies. Internet radio could therefore be more competitive "
12482 "than regular radio; it could provide a wider range of selections. And "
12483 "because the potential audience for Internet radio is the whole world, niche "
12484 "stations could easily develop and market their content to a relatively large "
12485 "number of users worldwide. According to some estimates, more than eighty "
12486 "million users worldwide have tuned in to this new form of radio."
12490 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12491 #: freeculture.xml:9480
12493 "Internet radio is thus to radio what FM was to AM. It is an improvement "
12494 "potentially vastly more significant than the FM improvement over AM, since "
12495 "not only is the technology better, so, too, is the competition. Indeed, "
12496 "there is a direct parallel between the fight to establish FM radio and the "
12497 "fight to protect Internet radio. As one author describes Howard Armstrong's "
12498 "struggle to enable FM radio,"
12502 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
12503 #: freeculture.xml:9504
12504 msgid "Lessing, 239."
12507 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
12508 #: freeculture.xml:9490
12510 "An almost unlimited number of FM stations was possible in the shortwaves, "
12511 "thus ending the unnatural restrictions imposed on radio in the crowded "
12512 "longwaves. If FM were freely developed, the number of stations would be "
12513 "limited only by economics and competition rather than by technical "
12514 "restrictions. … Armstrong likened the situation that had grown up in "
12515 "radio to that following the invention of the printing press, when "
12516 "governments and ruling interests attempted to control this new instrument of "
12517 "mass communications by imposing restrictive licenses on it. This tyranny was "
12518 "broken only when it became possible for men freely to acquire printing "
12519 "presses and freely to run them. FM in this sense was as great an invention "
12520 "as the printing presses, for it gave radio the opportunity to strike off its "
12521 "shackles.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
12525 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12526 #: freeculture.xml:9514
12527 msgid "Ibid., 229."
12530 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12531 #: freeculture.xml:9509
12533 "This potential for FM radio was never realized—not because Armstrong "
12534 "was wrong about the technology, but because he underestimated the power of "
12535 "\"vested interests, habits, customs and legislation\"<placeholder "
12536 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> to retard the growth of this competing "
12540 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12541 #: freeculture.xml:9519
12543 "Now the very same claim could be made about Internet radio. For again, there "
12544 "is no technical limitation that could restrict the number of Internet radio "
12545 "stations. The only restrictions on Internet radio are those imposed by the "
12546 "law. Copyright law is one such law. So the first question we should ask is, "
12547 "what copyright rules would govern Internet radio?"
12551 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12552 #: freeculture.xml:9527
12554 "But here the power of the lobbyists is reversed. Internet radio is a new "
12555 "industry. The recording artists, on the other hand, have a very powerful "
12556 "lobby, the RIAA. Thus when Congress considered the phenomenon of Internet "
12557 "radio in 1995, the lobbyists had primed Congress to adopt a different rule "
12558 "for Internet radio than the rule that applies to terrestrial radio. While "
12559 "terrestrial radio does not have to pay our hypothetical Marilyn Monroe when "
12560 "it plays her hypothetical recording of \"Happy Birthday\" on the air, "
12561 "<emphasis>Internet radio does</emphasis>. Not only is the law not neutral "
12562 "toward Internet radio—the law actually burdens Internet radio more "
12563 "than it burdens terrestrial radio."
12566 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
12567 #: freeculture.xml:9566
12568 msgid "CARP (Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel)"
12571 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12572 #: freeculture.xml:9549
12574 "This example was derived from fees set by the original Copyright Arbitration "
12575 "Royalty Panel (CARP) proceedings, and is drawn from an example offered by "
12576 "Professor William Fisher. Conference Proceedings, iLaw (Stanford), 3 July "
12577 "2003, on file with author. Professors Fisher and Zittrain submitted "
12578 "testimony in the CARP proceeding that was ultimately rejected. See Jonathan "
12579 "Zittrain, Digital Performance Right in Sound Recordings and Ephemeral "
12580 "Recordings, Docket No. 2000-9, CARP DTRA 1 and 2, available at <ulink "
12581 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #45</ulink>. For an excellent "
12582 "analysis making a similar point, see Randal C. Picker, \"Copyright as Entry "
12583 "Policy: The Case of Digital Distribution,\" <citetitle>Antitrust "
12584 "Bulletin</citetitle> (Summer/Fall 2002): 461: \"This was not confusion, "
12585 "these are just old-fashioned entry barriers. Analog radio stations are "
12586 "protected from digital entrants, reducing entry in radio and diversity. Yes, "
12587 "this is done in the name of getting royalties to copyright holders, but, "
12588 "absent the play of powerful interests, that could have been done in a "
12589 "media-neutral way.\" <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
12590 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
12593 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12594 #: freeculture.xml:9542
12596 "This financial burden is not slight. As Harvard law professor William Fisher "
12597 "estimates, if an Internet radio station distributed adfree popular music to "
12598 "(on average) ten thousand listeners, twenty-four hours a day, the total "
12599 "artist fees that radio station would owe would be over $1 million a "
12600 "year.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> A regular radio station "
12601 "broadcasting the same content would pay no equivalent fee."
12604 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12605 #: freeculture.xml:9573
12607 "The burden is not financial only. Under the original rules that were "
12608 "proposed, an Internet radio station (but not a terrestrial radio station) "
12609 "would have to collect the following data from <emphasis>every listening "
12610 "transaction</emphasis>:"
12613 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12614 #: freeculture.xml:9581
12615 msgid "name of the service;"
12618 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12619 #: freeculture.xml:9584
12620 msgid "channel of the program (AM/FM stations use station ID);"
12623 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12624 #: freeculture.xml:9587
12625 msgid "type of program (archived/looped/live);"
12628 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12629 #: freeculture.xml:9590
12630 msgid "date of transmission;"
12633 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12634 #: freeculture.xml:9593
12635 msgid "time of transmission;"
12638 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12639 #: freeculture.xml:9596
12640 msgid "time zone of origination of transmission;"
12643 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12644 #: freeculture.xml:9599
12645 msgid "numeric designation of the place of the sound recording within the program;"
12648 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12649 #: freeculture.xml:9602
12650 msgid "duration of transmission (to nearest second);"
12653 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12654 #: freeculture.xml:9605
12655 msgid "sound recording title;"
12658 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12659 #: freeculture.xml:9608
12660 msgid "ISRC code of the recording;"
12663 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12664 #: freeculture.xml:9611
12666 "release year of the album per copyright notice and in the case of "
12667 "compilation albums, the release year of the album and copy- right date of "
12671 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12672 #: freeculture.xml:9614
12673 msgid "featured recording artist;"
12676 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12677 #: freeculture.xml:9617
12678 msgid "retail album title;"
12681 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12682 #: freeculture.xml:9620
12683 msgid "recording label;"
12686 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12687 #: freeculture.xml:9623
12688 msgid "UPC code of the retail album;"
12691 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12692 #: freeculture.xml:9626
12693 msgid "catalog number;"
12696 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12697 #: freeculture.xml:9629
12698 msgid "copyright owner information;"
12701 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12702 #: freeculture.xml:9632
12703 msgid "musical genre of the channel or program (station format);"
12706 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12707 #: freeculture.xml:9635
12708 msgid "name of the service or entity;"
12711 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12712 #: freeculture.xml:9638
12713 msgid "channel or program;"
12716 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12717 #: freeculture.xml:9641
12718 msgid "date and time that the user logged in (in the user's time zone);"
12721 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12722 #: freeculture.xml:9644
12723 msgid "date and time that the user logged out (in the user's time zone);"
12726 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12727 #: freeculture.xml:9647
12728 msgid "time zone where the signal was received (user);"
12731 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12732 #: freeculture.xml:9650
12733 msgid "unique user identifier;"
12736 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12737 #: freeculture.xml:9653
12738 msgid "the country in which the user received the transmissions."
12741 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12742 #: freeculture.xml:9658
12744 "The Librarian of Congress eventually suspended these reporting requirements, "
12745 "pending further study. And he also changed the original rates set by the "
12746 "arbitration panel charged with setting rates. But the basic difference "
12747 "between Internet radio and terrestrial radio remains: Internet radio has to "
12748 "pay a <emphasis>type of copyright fee</emphasis> that terrestrial radio does "
12752 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12753 #: freeculture.xml:9666
12755 "Why? What justifies this difference? Was there any study of the economic "
12756 "consequences from Internet radio that would justify these differences? Was "
12757 "the motive to protect artists against piracy?"
12760 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12761 #: freeculture.xml:9672
12763 "In a rare bit of candor, one RIAA expert admitted what seemed obvious to "
12764 "everyone at the time. As Alex Alben, vice president for Public Policy at "
12765 "Real Networks, told me,"
12769 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
12770 #: freeculture.xml:9678
12772 "The RIAA, which was representing the record labels, presented some testimony "
12773 "about what they thought a willing buyer would pay to a willing seller, and "
12774 "it was much higher. It was ten times higher than what radio stations pay to "
12775 "perform the same songs for the same period of time. And so the attorneys "
12776 "representing the webcasters asked the RIAA, … \"How do you come up "
12777 "with a rate that's so much higher? Why is it worth more than radio? Because "
12778 "here we have hundreds of thousands of webcasters who want to pay, and that "
12779 "should establish the market rate, and if you set the rate so high, you're "
12780 "going to drive the small webcasters out of business. …\""
12783 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
12784 #: freeculture.xml:9694
12786 "And the RIAA experts said, \"Well, we don't really model this as an industry "
12787 "with thousands of webcasters, <emphasis>we think it should be an industry "
12788 "with, you know, five or seven big players who can pay a high rate and it's a "
12789 "stable, predictable market</emphasis>.\" (Emphasis added.)"
12792 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12793 #: freeculture.xml:9702
12795 "Translation: The aim is to use the law to eliminate competition, so that "
12796 "this platform of potentially immense competition, which would cause the "
12797 "diversity and range of content available to explode, would not cause pain to "
12798 "the dinosaurs of old. There is no one, on either the right or the left, who "
12799 "should endorse this use of the law. And yet there is practically no one, on "
12800 "either the right or the left, who is doing anything effective to prevent it."
12803 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
12804 #: freeculture.xml:9712
12805 msgid "Corrupting Citizens"
12808 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12809 #: freeculture.xml:9714
12811 "Overregulation stifles creativity. It smothers innovation. It gives "
12812 "dinosaurs a veto over the future. It wastes the extraordinary opportunity "
12813 "for a democratic creativity that digital technology enables."
12816 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12817 #: freeculture.xml:9720
12819 "In addition to these important harms, there is one more that was important "
12820 "to our forebears, but seems forgotten today. Overregulation corrupts "
12821 "citizens and weakens the rule of law."
12825 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12826 #: freeculture.xml:9729
12828 "Mike Graziano and Lee Rainie, \"The Music Downloading Deluge,\" Pew Internet "
12829 "and American Life Project (24 April 2001), available at <ulink "
12830 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #46</ulink>. The Pew Internet "
12831 "and American Life Project reported that 37 million Americans had downloaded "
12832 "music files from the Internet by early 2001."
12836 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12837 #: freeculture.xml:9725
12839 "The war that is being waged today is a war of prohibition. As with every war "
12840 "of prohibition, it is targeted against the behavior of a very large number "
12841 "of citizens. According to <citetitle>The New York Times</citetitle>, 43 "
12842 "million Americans downloaded music in May 2002.<placeholder "
12843 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> According to the RIAA, the behavior of those 43 "
12844 "million Americans is a felony. We thus have a set of rules that transform 20 "
12845 "percent of America into criminals. As the RIAA launches lawsuits against not "
12846 "only the Napsters and Kazaas of the world, but against students building "
12847 "search engines, and increasingly against ordinary users downloading content, "
12848 "the technologies for sharing will advance to further protect and hide "
12849 "illegal use. It is an arms race or a civil war, with the extremes of one "
12850 "side inviting a more extreme response by the other."
12854 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12855 #: freeculture.xml:9763
12857 "Alex Pham, \"The Labels Strike Back: N.Y. Girl Settles RIAA Case,\" "
12858 "<citetitle>Los Angeles Times</citetitle>, 10 September 2003, Business."
12861 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12862 #: freeculture.xml:9750
12864 "The content industry's tactics exploit the failings of the American legal "
12865 "system. When the RIAA brought suit against Jesse Jordan, it knew that in "
12866 "Jordan it had found a scapegoat, not a defendant. The threat of having to "
12867 "pay either all the money in the world in damages ($15,000,000) or almost all "
12868 "the money in the world to defend against paying all the money in the world "
12869 "in damages ($250,000 in legal fees) led Jordan to choose to pay all the "
12870 "money he had in the world ($12,000) to make the suit go away. The same "
12871 "strategy animates the RIAA's suits against individual users. In September "
12872 "2003, the RIAA sued 261 individuals—including a twelve-year-old girl "
12873 "living in public housing and a seventy-year-old man who had no idea what "
12874 "file sharing was.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> As these "
12875 "scapegoats discovered, it will always cost more to defend against these "
12876 "suits than it would cost to simply settle. (The twelve year old, for "
12877 "example, like Jesse Jordan, paid her life savings of $2,000 to settle the "
12878 "case.) Our law is an awful system for defending rights. It is an "
12879 "embarrassment to our tradition. And the consequence of our law as it is, is "
12880 "that those with the power can use the law to quash any rights they oppose."
12884 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12885 #: freeculture.xml:9785
12887 "Jeffrey A. Miron and Jeffrey Zwiebel, \"Alcohol Consumption During "
12888 "Prohibition,\" <citetitle>American Economic Review</citetitle> 81, no. 2 "
12893 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12894 #: freeculture.xml:9793
12896 "National Drug Control Policy: Hearing Before the House Government Reform "
12897 "Committee, 108th Cong., 1st sess. (5 March 2003) (statement of John "
12898 "P. Walters, director of National Drug Control Policy)."
12902 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12903 #: freeculture.xml:9803
12905 "See James Andreoni, Brian Erard, and Jonathon Feinstein, \"Tax Compliance,\" "
12906 "<citetitle>Journal of Economic Literature</citetitle> 36 (1998): 818 (survey "
12907 "of compliance literature)."
12910 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
12911 #: freeculture.xml:9810
12912 msgid "alcohol prohibition"
12915 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12916 #: freeculture.xml:9775
12918 "Wars of prohibition are nothing new in America. This one is just something "
12919 "more extreme than anything we've seen before. We experimented with alcohol "
12920 "prohibition, at a time when the per capita consumption of alcohol was 1.5 "
12921 "gallons per capita per year. The war against drinking initially reduced that "
12922 "consumption to just 30 percent of its preprohibition levels, but by the end "
12923 "of prohibition, consumption was up to 70 percent of the preprohibition "
12924 "level. Americans were drinking just about as much, but now, a vast number "
12925 "were criminals.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> We have launched a "
12926 "war on drugs aimed at reducing the consumption of regulated narcotics that 7 "
12927 "percent (or 16 million) Americans now use.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
12928 "id=\"1\"/> That is a drop from the high (so to speak) in 1979 of 14 percent "
12929 "of the population. We regulate automobiles to the point where the vast "
12930 "majority of Americans violate the law every day. We run such a complex tax "
12931 "system that a majority of cash businesses regularly cheat.<placeholder "
12932 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/> We pride ourselves on our \"free society,\" but "
12933 "an endless array of ordinary behavior is regulated within our society. And "
12934 "as a result, a huge proportion of Americans regularly violate at least some "
12935 "law. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/>"
12938 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
12939 #: freeculture.xml:9828
12940 msgid "law schools"
12943 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12944 #: freeculture.xml:9813
12946 "This state of affairs is not without consequence. It is a particularly "
12947 "salient issue for teachers like me, whose job it is to teach law students "
12948 "about the importance of \"ethics.\" As my colleague Charlie Nesson told a "
12949 "class at Stanford, each year law schools admit thousands of students who "
12950 "have illegally downloaded music, illegally consumed alcohol and sometimes "
12951 "drugs, illegally worked without paying taxes, illegally driven cars. These "
12952 "are kids for whom behaving illegally is increasingly the norm. And then we, "
12953 "as law professors, are supposed to teach them how to behave "
12954 "ethically—how to say no to bribes, or keep client funds separate, or "
12955 "honor a demand to disclose a document that will mean that your case is "
12956 "over. Generations of Americans—more significantly in some parts of "
12957 "America than in others, but still, everywhere in America today—can't "
12958 "live their lives both normally and legally, since \"normally\" entails a "
12959 "certain degree of illegality. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
12962 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12963 #: freeculture.xml:9831
12965 "The response to this general illegality is either to enforce the law more "
12966 "severely or to change the law. We, as a society, have to learn how to make "
12967 "that choice more rationally. Whether a law makes sense depends, in part, at "
12968 "least, upon whether the costs of the law, both intended and collateral, "
12969 "outweigh the benefits. If the costs, intended and collateral, do outweigh "
12970 "the benefits, then the law ought to be changed. Alternatively, if the costs "
12971 "of the existing system are much greater than the costs of an alternative, "
12972 "then we have a good reason to consider the alternative."
12976 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12977 #: freeculture.xml:9844
12979 "My point is not the idiotic one: Just because people violate a law, we "
12980 "should therefore repeal it. Obviously, we could reduce murder statistics "
12981 "dramatically by legalizing murder on Wednesdays and Fridays. But that "
12982 "wouldn't make any sense, since murder is wrong every day of the week. A "
12983 "society is right to ban murder always and everywhere."
12986 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12987 #: freeculture.xml:9851
12989 "My point is instead one that democracies understood for generations, but "
12990 "that we recently have learned to forget. The rule of law depends upon people "
12991 "obeying the law. The more often, and more repeatedly, we as citizens "
12992 "experience violating the law, the less we respect the law. Obviously, in "
12993 "most cases, the important issue is the law, not respect for the law. I don't "
12994 "care whether the rapist respects the law or not; I want to catch and "
12995 "incarcerate the rapist. But I do care whether my students respect the "
12996 "law. And I do care if the rules of law sow increasing disrespect because of "
12997 "the extreme of regulation they impose. Twenty million Americans have come "
12998 "of age since the Internet introduced this different idea of \"sharing.\" We "
12999 "need to be able to call these twenty million Americans \"citizens,\" not "
13003 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13004 #: freeculture.xml:9865
13006 "When at least forty-three million citizens download content from the "
13007 "Internet, and when they use tools to combine that content in ways "
13008 "unauthorized by copyright holders, the first question we should be asking is "
13009 "not how best to involve the FBI. The first question should be whether this "
13010 "particular prohibition is really necessary in order to achieve the proper "
13011 "ends that copyright law serves. Is there another way to assure that artists "
13012 "get paid without transforming forty-three million Americans into felons? "
13013 "Does it make sense if there are other ways to assure that artists get paid "
13014 "without transforming America into a nation of felons?"
13017 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13018 #: freeculture.xml:9877
13019 msgid "This abstract point can be made more clear with a particular example."
13023 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13024 #: freeculture.xml:9880
13026 "We all own CDs. Many of us still own phonograph records. These pieces of "
13027 "plastic encode music that in a certain sense we have bought. The law "
13028 "protects our right to buy and sell that plastic: It is not a copyright "
13029 "infringement for me to sell all my classical records at a used record store "
13030 "and buy jazz records to replace them. That \"use\" of the recordings is "
13034 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13035 #: freeculture.xml:9891
13037 "But as the MP3 craze has demonstrated, there is another use of phonograph "
13038 "records that is effectively free. Because these recordings were made without "
13039 "copy-protection technologies, I am \"free\" to copy, or \"rip,\" music from "
13040 "my records onto a computer hard disk. Indeed, Apple Corporation went so far "
13041 "as to suggest that \"freedom\" was a right: In a series of commercials, "
13042 "Apple endorsed the \"Rip, Mix, Burn\" capacities of digital technologies."
13045 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
13046 #: freeculture.xml:9899
13050 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13051 #: freeculture.xml:9901
13053 "This \"use\" of my records is certainly valuable. I have begun a large "
13054 "process at home of ripping all of my and my wife's CDs, and storing them in "
13055 "one archive. Then, using Apple's iTunes, or a wonderful program called "
13056 "Andromeda, we can build different play lists of our music: Bach, Baroque, "
13057 "Love Songs, Love Songs of Significant Others—the potential is "
13058 "endless. And by reducing the costs of mixing play lists, these technologies "
13059 "help build a creativity with play lists that is itself independently "
13060 "valuable. Compilations of songs are creative and meaningful in their own "
13064 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13065 #: freeculture.xml:9912
13067 "This use is enabled by unprotected media—either CDs or records. But "
13068 "unprotected media also enable file sharing. File sharing threatens (or so "
13069 "the content industry believes) the ability of creators to earn a fair return "
13070 "from their creativity. And thus, many are beginning to experiment with "
13071 "technologies to eliminate unprotected media. These technologies, for "
13072 "example, would enable CDs that could not be ripped. Or they might enable spy "
13073 "programs to identify ripped content on people's machines."
13077 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13078 #: freeculture.xml:9922
13080 "If these technologies took off, then the building of large archives of your "
13081 "own music would become quite difficult. You might hang in hacker circles, "
13082 "and get technology to disable the technologies that protect the "
13083 "content. Trading in those technologies is illegal, but maybe that doesn't "
13084 "bother you much. In any case, for the vast majority of people, these "
13085 "protection technologies would effectively destroy the archiving use of "
13086 "CDs. The technology, in other words, would force us all back to the world "
13087 "where we either listened to music by manipulating pieces of plastic or were "
13088 "part of a massively complex \"digital rights management\" system."
13091 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13092 #: freeculture.xml:9936
13094 "If the only way to assure that artists get paid were the elimination of the "
13095 "ability to freely move content, then these technologies to interfere with "
13096 "the freedom to move content would be justifiable. But what if there were "
13097 "another way to assure that artists are paid, without locking down any "
13098 "content? What if, in other words, a different system could assure "
13099 "compensation to artists while also preserving the freedom to move content "
13103 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13104 #: freeculture.xml:9945
13106 "My point just now is not to prove that there is such a system. I offer a "
13107 "version of such a system in the last chapter of this book. For now, the only "
13108 "point is the relatively uncontroversial one: If a different system achieved "
13109 "the same legitimate objectives that the existing copyright system achieved, "
13110 "but left consumers and creators much more free, then we'd have a very good "
13111 "reason to pursue this alternative—namely, freedom. The choice, in "
13112 "other words, would not be between property and piracy; the choice would be "
13113 "between different property systems and the freedoms each allowed."
13116 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13117 #: freeculture.xml:9956
13119 "I believe there is a way to assure that artists are paid without turning "
13120 "forty-three million Americans into felons. But the salient feature of this "
13121 "alternative is that it would lead to a very different market for producing "
13122 "and distributing creativity. The dominant few, who today control the vast "
13123 "majority of the distribution of content in the world, would no longer "
13124 "exercise this extreme of control. Rather, they would go the way of the "
13125 "horse-drawn buggy."
13128 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13129 #: freeculture.xml:9965
13131 "Except that this generation's buggy manufacturers have already saddled "
13132 "Congress, and are riding the law to protect themselves against this new form "
13133 "of competition. For them the choice is between fortythree million Americans "
13134 "as criminals and their own survival."
13137 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13138 #: freeculture.xml:9971
13140 "It is understandable why they choose as they do. It is not understandable "
13141 "why we as a democracy continue to choose as we do. Jack Valenti is charming; "
13142 "but not so charming as to justify giving up a tradition as deep and "
13143 "important as our tradition of free culture. There's one more aspect to this "
13144 "corruption that is particularly important to civil liberties, and follows "
13145 "directly from any war of prohibition. As Electronic Frontier Foundation "
13146 "attorney Fred von Lohmann describes, this is the \"collateral damage\" that "
13147 "\"arises whenever you turn a very large percentage of the population into "
13148 "criminals.\" This is the collateral damage to civil liberties generally. "
13149 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
13152 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
13153 #: freeculture.xml:9990 freeculture.xml:10099
13154 msgid "von Lohmann, Fred"
13157 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13158 #: freeculture.xml:9988
13160 "\"If you can treat someone as a putative lawbreaker,\" von Lohmann explains, "
13161 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
13164 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
13165 #: freeculture.xml:9994
13167 "then all of a sudden a lot of basic civil liberty protections evaporate to "
13168 "one degree or another. … If you're a copyright infringer, how can you "
13169 "hope to have any privacy rights? If you're a copyright infringer, how can "
13170 "you hope to be secure against seizures of your computer? How can you hope to "
13171 "continue to receive Internet access? … Our sensibilities change as "
13172 "soon as we think, \"Oh, well, but that person's a criminal, a lawbreaker.\" "
13173 "Well, what this campaign against file sharing has done is turn a remarkable "
13174 "percentage of the American Internet-using population into \"lawbreakers.\""
13177 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13178 #: freeculture.xml:10006
13180 "And the consequence of this transformation of the American public into "
13181 "criminals is that it becomes trivial, as a matter of due process, to "
13182 "effectively erase much of the privacy most would presume."
13185 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13186 #: freeculture.xml:10011
13188 "Users of the Internet began to see this generally in 2003 as the RIAA "
13189 "launched its campaign to force Internet service providers to turn over the "
13190 "names of customers who the RIAA believed were violating copyright "
13191 "law. Verizon fought that demand and lost. With a simple request to a judge, "
13192 "and without any notice to the customer at all, the identity of an Internet "
13193 "user is revealed."
13197 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13198 #: freeculture.xml:10029
13200 "See Frank Ahrens, \"RIAA's Lawsuits Meet Surprised Targets; Single Mother in "
13201 "Calif., 12-Year-Old Girl in N.Y. Among Defendants,\" <citetitle>Washington "
13202 "Post</citetitle>, 10 September 2003, E1; Chris Cobbs, \"Worried Parents Pull "
13203 "Plug on File `Stealing'; With the Music Industry Cracking Down on File "
13204 "Swapping, Parents are Yanking Software from Home PCs to Avoid Being Sued,\" "
13205 "<citetitle>Orlando Sentinel Tribune</citetitle>, 30 August 2003, C1; "
13206 "Jefferson Graham, \"Recording Industry Sues Parents,\" <citetitle>USA "
13207 "Today</citetitle>, 15 September 2003, 4D; John Schwartz, \"She Says She's No "
13208 "Music Pirate. No Snoop Fan, Either,\" <citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, "
13209 "25 September 2003, C1; Margo Varadi, \"Is Brianna a Criminal?\" "
13210 "<citetitle>Toronto Star</citetitle>, 18 September 2003, P7."
13213 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13214 #: freeculture.xml:10020
13216 "The RIAA then expanded this campaign, by announcing a general strategy to "
13217 "sue individual users of the Internet who are alleged to have downloaded "
13218 "copyrighted music from file-sharing systems. But as we've seen, the "
13219 "potential damages from these suits are astronomical: If a family's computer "
13220 "is used to download a single CD's worth of music, the family could be liable "
13221 "for $2 million in damages. That didn't stop the RIAA from suing a number of "
13222 "these families, just as they had sued Jesse Jordan.<placeholder "
13223 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
13227 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13228 #: freeculture.xml:10047
13230 "See \"Revealed: How RIAA Tracks Downloaders: Music Industry Discloses Some "
13231 "Methods Used,\" CNN.com, available at <ulink "
13232 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #47</ulink>."
13235 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13236 #: freeculture.xml:10043
13238 "Even this understates the espionage that is being waged by the RIAA. A "
13239 "report from CNN late last summer described a strategy the RIAA had adopted "
13240 "to track Napster users.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Using a "
13241 "sophisticated hashing algorithm, the RIAA took what is in effect a "
13242 "fingerprint of every song in the Napster catalog. Any copy of one of those "
13243 "MP3s will have the same \"fingerprint.\""
13247 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13248 #: freeculture.xml:10068
13250 "See Jeff Adler, \"Cambridge: On Campus, Pirates Are Not Penitent,\" "
13251 "<citetitle>Boston Globe</citetitle>, 18 May 2003, City Weekly, 1; Frank "
13252 "Ahrens, \"Four Students Sued over Music Sites; Industry Group Targets File "
13253 "Sharing at Colleges,\" <citetitle>Washington Post</citetitle>, 4 April 2003, "
13254 "E1; Elizabeth Armstrong, \"Students `Rip, Mix, Burn' at Their Own Risk,\" "
13255 "<citetitle>Christian Science Monitor</citetitle>, 2 September 2003, 20; "
13256 "Robert Becker and Angela Rozas, \"Music Pirate Hunt Turns to Loyola; Two "
13257 "Students Names Are Handed Over; Lawsuit Possible,\" <citetitle>Chicago "
13258 "Tribune</citetitle>, 16 July 2003, 1C; Beth Cox, \"RIAA Trains Antipiracy "
13259 "Guns on Universities,\" <citetitle>Internet News</citetitle>, 30 January "
13260 "2003, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
13261 "#48</ulink>; Benny Evangelista, \"Download Warning 101: Freshman Orientation "
13262 "This Fall to Include Record Industry Warnings Against File Sharing,\" "
13263 "<citetitle>San Francisco Chronicle</citetitle>, 11 August 2003, E11; \"Raid, "
13264 "Letters Are Weapons at Universities,\" <citetitle>USA Today</citetitle>, 26 "
13265 "September 2000, 3D."
13268 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13269 #: freeculture.xml:10056
13271 "So imagine the following not-implausible scenario: Imagine a friend gives a "
13272 "CD to your daughter—a collection of songs just like the cassettes you "
13273 "used to make as a kid. You don't know, and neither does your daughter, where "
13274 "these songs came from. But she copies these songs onto her computer. She "
13275 "then takes her computer to college and connects it to a college network, and "
13276 "if the college network is \"cooperating\" with the RIAA's espionage, and she "
13277 "hasn't properly protected her content from the network (do you know how to "
13278 "do that yourself ?), then the RIAA will be able to identify your daughter as "
13279 "a \"criminal.\" And under the rules that universities are beginning to "
13280 "deploy,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> your daughter can lose the "
13281 "right to use the university's computer network. She can, in some cases, be "
13285 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13286 #: freeculture.xml:10087
13288 "Now, of course, she'll have the right to defend herself. You can hire a "
13289 "lawyer for her (at $300 per hour, if you're lucky), and she can plead that "
13290 "she didn't know anything about the source of the songs or that they came "
13291 "from Napster. And it may well be that the university believes her. But the "
13292 "university might not believe her. It might treat this \"contraband\" as "
13293 "presumptive of guilt. And as any number of college students have already "
13294 "learned, our presumptions about innocence disappear in the middle of wars of "
13295 "prohibition. This war is no different. Says von Lohmann, <placeholder "
13296 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
13299 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
13300 #: freeculture.xml:10103
13302 "So when we're talking about numbers like forty to sixty million Americans "
13303 "that are essentially copyright infringers, you create a situation where the "
13304 "civil liberties of those people are very much in peril in a general "
13305 "matter. [I don't] think [there is any] analog where you could randomly "
13306 "choose any person off the street and be confident that they were committing "
13307 "an unlawful act that could put them on the hook for potential felony "
13308 "liability or hundreds of millions of dollars of civil liability. Certainly "
13309 "we all speed, but speeding isn't the kind of an act for which we routinely "
13310 "forfeit civil liberties. Some people use drugs, and I think that's the "
13311 "closest analog, [but] many have noted that the war against drugs has eroded "
13312 "all of our civil liberties because it's treated so many Americans as "
13313 "criminals. Well, I think it's fair to say that file sharing is an order of "
13314 "magnitude larger number of Americans than drug use. … If forty to "
13315 "sixty million Americans have become lawbreakers, then we're really on a "
13316 "slippery slope to lose a lot of civil liberties for all forty to sixty "
13320 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13321 #: freeculture.xml:10123
13323 "When forty to sixty million Americans are considered \"criminals\" under the "
13324 "law, and when the law could achieve the same objective— securing "
13325 "rights to authors—without these millions being considered "
13326 "\"criminals,\" who is the villain? Americans or the law? Which is American, "
13327 "a constant war on our own people or a concerted effort through our democracy "
13328 "to change our law?"
13331 #. type: Content of: <book><part><title>
13332 #: freeculture.xml:10136
13336 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
13337 #: freeculture.xml:10141
13339 "So here's the picture: You're standing at the side of the road. Your car is "
13340 "on fire. You are angry and upset because in part you helped start the "
13341 "fire. Now you don't know how to put it out. Next to you is a bucket, filled "
13342 "with gasoline. Obviously, gasoline won't put the fire out."
13345 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
13346 #: freeculture.xml:10147
13348 "As you ponder the mess, someone else comes along. In a panic, she grabs the "
13349 "bucket. Before you have a chance to tell her to stop—or before she "
13350 "understands just why she should stop—the bucket is in the air. The "
13351 "gasoline is about to hit the blazing car. And the fire that gasoline will "
13352 "ignite is about to ignite everything around."
13355 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
13356 #: freeculture.xml:10155
13358 "A war about copyright rages all around—and we're all focusing on the "
13359 "wrong thing. No doubt, current technologies threaten existing businesses. "
13360 "No doubt they may threaten artists. But technologies change. The industry "
13361 "and technologists have plenty of ways to use technology to protect "
13362 "themselves against the current threats of the Internet. This is a fire that "
13363 "if let alone would burn itself out."
13367 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
13368 #: freeculture.xml:10164
13370 "Yet policy makers are not willing to leave this fire to itself. Primed with "
13371 "plenty of lobbyists' money, they are keen to intervene to eliminate the "
13372 "problem they perceive. But the problem they perceive is not the real threat "
13373 "this culture faces. For while we watch this small fire in the corner, there "
13374 "is a massive change in the way culture is made that is happening all around."
13377 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
13378 #: freeculture.xml:10172
13380 "Somehow we have to find a way to turn attention to this more important and "
13381 "fundamental issue. Somehow we have to find a way to avoid pouring gasoline "
13385 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
13386 #: freeculture.xml:10177
13388 "We have not found that way yet. Instead, we seem trapped in a simpler, "
13389 "binary view. However much many people push to frame this debate more "
13390 "broadly, it is the simple, binary view that remains. We rubberneck to look "
13391 "at the fire when we should be keeping our eyes on the road."
13394 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
13395 #: freeculture.xml:10183
13397 "This challenge has been my life these last few years. It has also been my "
13398 "failure. In the two chapters that follow, I describe one small brace of "
13399 "efforts, so far failed, to find a way to refocus this debate. We must "
13400 "understand these failures if we're to understand what success will require."
13403 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
13404 #: freeculture.xml:10193
13405 msgid "CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Eldred"
13408 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13409 #: freeculture.xml:10195
13411 "In 1995, a father was frustrated that his daughters didn't seem to like "
13412 "Hawthorne. No doubt there was more than one such father, but at least one "
13413 "did something about it. Eric Eldred, a retired computer programmer living in "
13414 "New Hampshire, decided to put Hawthorne on the Web. An electronic version, "
13415 "Eldred thought, with links to pictures and explanatory text, would make this "
13416 "nineteenth-century author's work come alive."
13419 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13420 #: freeculture.xml:10204
13422 "It didn't work—at least for his daughters. They didn't find Hawthorne "
13423 "any more interesting than before. But Eldred's experiment gave birth to a "
13424 "hobby, and his hobby begat a cause: Eldred would build a library of public "
13425 "domain works by scanning these works and making them available for free."
13429 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13430 #: freeculture.xml:10211
13432 "Eldred's library was not simply a copy of certain public domain works, "
13433 "though even a copy would have been of great value to people across the world "
13434 "who can't get access to printed versions of these works. Instead, Eldred was "
13435 "producing derivative works from these public domain works. Just as Disney "
13436 "turned Grimm into stories more accessible to the twentieth century, Eldred "
13437 "transformed Hawthorne, and many others, into a form more "
13438 "accessible—technically accessible—today."
13441 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13442 #: freeculture.xml:10222
13444 "Eldred's freedom to do this with Hawthorne's work grew from the same source "
13445 "as Disney's. Hawthorne's <citetitle>Scarlet Letter</citetitle> had passed "
13446 "into the public domain in 1907. It was free for anyone to take without the "
13447 "permission of the Hawthorne estate or anyone else. Some, such as Dover Press "
13448 "and Penguin Classics, take works from the public domain and produce printed "
13449 "editions, which they sell in bookstores across the country. Others, such as "
13450 "Disney, take these stories and turn them into animated cartoons, sometimes "
13451 "successfully (<citetitle>Cinderella</citetitle>), sometimes not "
13452 "(<citetitle>The Hunchback of Notre Dame</citetitle>, <citetitle>Treasure "
13453 "Planet</citetitle>). These are all commercial publications of public domain "
13458 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
13459 #: freeculture.xml:10245
13461 "There's a parallel here with pornography that is a bit hard to describe, but "
13462 "it's a strong one. One phenomenon that the Internet created was a world of "
13463 "noncommercial pornographers—people who were distributing porn but were "
13464 "not making money directly or indirectly from that distribution. Such a "
13465 "class didn't exist before the Internet came into being because the costs of "
13466 "distributing porn were so high. Yet this new class of distributors got "
13467 "special attention in the Supreme Court, when the Court struck down the "
13468 "Communications Decency Act of 1996. It was partly because of the burden on "
13469 "noncommercial speakers that the statute was found to exceed Congress's "
13470 "power. The same point could have been made about noncommercial publishers "
13471 "after the advent of the Internet. The Eric Eldreds of the world before the "
13472 "Internet were extremely few. Yet one would think it at least as important to "
13473 "protect the Eldreds of the world as to protect noncommercial pornographers."
13476 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13477 #: freeculture.xml:10234
13479 "The Internet created the possibility of noncommercial publications of public "
13480 "domain works. Eldred's is just one example. There are literally thousands of "
13481 "others. Hundreds of thousands from across the world have discovered this "
13482 "platform of expression and now use it to share works that are, by law, free "
13483 "for the taking. This has produced what we might call the \"noncommercial "
13484 "publishing industry,\" which before the Internet was limited to people with "
13485 "large egos or with political or social causes. But with the Internet, it "
13486 "includes a wide range of individuals and groups dedicated to spreading "
13487 "culture generally.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
13490 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13491 #: freeculture.xml:10262
13493 "As I said, Eldred lives in New Hampshire. In 1998, Robert Frost's collection "
13494 "of poems <citetitle>New Hampshire</citetitle> was slated to pass into the "
13495 "public domain. Eldred wanted to post that collection in his free public "
13496 "library. But Congress got in the way. As I described in chapter <xref "
13497 "xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"property-i\"/>, in 1998, for the "
13498 "eleventh time in forty years, Congress extended the terms of existing "
13499 "copyrights—this time by twenty years. Eldred would not be free to add "
13500 "any works more recent than 1923 to his collection until 2019. Indeed, no "
13501 "copyrighted work would pass into the public domain until that year (and not "
13502 "even then, if Congress extends the term again). By contrast, in the same "
13503 "period, more than 1 million patents will pass into the public domain."
13507 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
13508 #: freeculture.xml:10283
13510 "The full text is: \"Sonny [Bono] wanted the term of copyright protection to "
13511 "last forever. I am informed by staff that such a change would violate the "
13512 "Constitution. I invite all of you to work with me to strengthen our "
13513 "copyright laws in all of the ways available to us. As you know, there is "
13514 "also Jack Valenti's proposal for a term to last forever less one "
13515 "day. Perhaps the Committee may look at that next Congress,\" 144 "
13516 "Cong. Rec. H9946, 9951-2 (October 7, 1998)."
13519 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13520 #: freeculture.xml:10278
13522 "This was the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA), enacted in "
13523 "memory of the congressman and former musician Sonny Bono, who, his widow, "
13524 "Mary Bono, says, believed that \"copyrights should be forever.\"<placeholder "
13525 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
13528 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13529 #: freeculture.xml:10294
13531 "Eldred decided to fight this law. He first resolved to fight it through "
13532 "civil disobedience. In a series of interviews, Eldred announced that he "
13533 "would publish as planned, CTEA notwithstanding. But because of a second law "
13534 "passed in 1998, the NET (No Electronic Theft) Act, his act of publishing "
13535 "would make Eldred a felon—whether or not anyone complained. This was a "
13536 "dangerous strategy for a disabled programmer to undertake."
13539 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13540 #: freeculture.xml:10303
13542 "It was here that I became involved in Eldred's battle. I was a "
13543 "constitutional scholar whose first passion was constitutional "
13544 "interpretation. And though constitutional law courses never focus upon the "
13545 "Progress Clause of the Constitution, it had always struck me as importantly "
13546 "different. As you know, the Constitution says,"
13549 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
13550 #: freeculture.xml:10314
13552 "Congress has the power to promote the Progress of Science … by "
13553 "securing for limited Times to Authors … exclusive Right to their "
13554 "… Writings. …"
13557 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13558 #: freeculture.xml:10320
13560 "As I've described, this clause is unique within the power-granting clause of "
13561 "Article I, section 8 of our Constitution. Every other clause granting power "
13562 "to Congress simply says Congress has the power to do something—for "
13563 "example, to regulate \"commerce among the several states\" or \"declare "
13564 "War.\" But here, the \"something\" is something quite specific—to "
13565 "\"promote … Progress\"—through means that are also "
13566 "specific— by \"securing\" \"exclusive Rights\" (i.e., copyrights) "
13567 "\"for limited Times.\""
13570 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
13571 #: freeculture.xml:10339 freeculture.xml:11788
13572 msgid "Jaszi, Peter"
13575 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13576 #: freeculture.xml:10330
13578 "In the past forty years, Congress has gotten into the practice of extending "
13579 "existing terms of copyright protection. What puzzled me about this was, if "
13580 "Congress has the power to extend existing terms, then the Constitution's "
13581 "requirement that terms be \"limited\" will have no practical effect. If "
13582 "every time a copyright is about to expire, Congress has the power to extend "
13583 "its term, then Congress can achieve what the Constitution plainly "
13584 "forbids—perpetual terms \"on the installment plan,\" as Professor "
13585 "Peter Jaszi so nicely put it. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
13588 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13589 #: freeculture.xml:10342
13591 "As an academic, my first response was to hit the books. I remember sitting "
13592 "late at the office, scouring on-line databases for any serious consideration "
13593 "of the question. No one had ever challenged Congress's practice of extending "
13594 "existing terms. That failure may in part be why Congress seemed so "
13595 "untroubled in its habit. That, and the fact that the practice had become so "
13596 "lucrative for Congress. Congress knows that copyright owners will be willing "
13597 "to pay a great deal of money to see their copyright terms extended. And so "
13598 "Congress is quite happy to keep this gravy train going."
13601 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13602 #: freeculture.xml:10353
13604 "For this is the core of the corruption in our present system of "
13605 "government. \"Corruption\" not in the sense that representatives are "
13606 "bribed. Rather, \"corruption\" in the sense that the system induces the "
13607 "beneficiaries of Congress's acts to raise and give money to Congress to "
13608 "induce it to act. There's only so much time; there's only so much Congress "
13609 "can do. Why not limit its actions to those things it must do—and those "
13610 "things that pay? Extending copyright terms pays."
13613 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13614 #: freeculture.xml:10362
13616 "If that's not obvious to you, consider the following: Say you're one of the "
13617 "very few lucky copyright owners whose copyright continues to make money one "
13618 "hundred years after it was created. The Estate of Robert Frost is a good "
13619 "example. Frost died in 1963. His poetry continues to be extraordinarily "
13620 "valuable. Thus the Robert Frost estate benefits greatly from any extension "
13621 "of copyright, since no publisher would pay the estate any money if the poems "
13622 "Frost wrote could be published by anyone for free."
13625 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13626 #: freeculture.xml:10372
13628 "So imagine the Robert Frost estate is earning $100,000 a year from three of "
13629 "Frost's poems. And imagine the copyright for those poems is about to "
13630 "expire. You sit on the board of the Robert Frost estate. Your financial "
13631 "adviser comes to your board meeting with a very grim report:"
13635 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13636 #: freeculture.xml:10379
13638 "\"Next year,\" the adviser announces, \"our copyrights in works A, B, and C "
13639 "will expire. That means that after next year, we will no longer be receiving "
13640 "the annual royalty check of $100,000 from the publishers of those works."
13643 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13644 #: freeculture.xml:10387
13646 "\"There's a proposal in Congress, however,\" she continues, \"that could "
13647 "change this. A few congressmen are floating a bill to extend the terms of "
13648 "copyright by twenty years. That bill would be extraordinarily valuable to "
13649 "us. So we should hope this bill passes.\""
13652 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13653 #: freeculture.xml:10393
13655 "\"Hope?\" a fellow board member says. \"Can't we be doing something about "
13659 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13660 #: freeculture.xml:10397
13662 "\"Well, obviously, yes,\" the adviser responds. \"We could contribute to the "
13663 "campaigns of a number of representatives to try to assure that they support "
13667 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13668 #: freeculture.xml:10402
13670 "You hate politics. You hate contributing to campaigns. So you want to know "
13671 "whether this disgusting practice is worth it. \"How much would we get if "
13672 "this extension were passed?\" you ask the adviser. \"How much is it worth?\""
13675 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13676 #: freeculture.xml:10408
13678 "\"Well,\" the adviser says, \"if you're confident that you will continue to "
13679 "get at least $100,000 a year from these copyrights, and you use the "
13680 "`discount rate' that we use to evaluate estate investments (6 percent), then "
13681 "this law would be worth $1,146,000 to the estate.\""
13684 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13685 #: freeculture.xml:10414
13687 "You're a bit shocked by the number, but you quickly come to the correct "
13691 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13692 #: freeculture.xml:10418
13694 "\"So you're saying it would be worth it for us to pay more than $1,000,000 "
13695 "in campaign contributions if we were confident those contributions would "
13696 "assure that the bill was passed?\""
13699 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13700 #: freeculture.xml:10424
13702 "\"Absolutely,\" the adviser responds. \"It is worth it to you to contribute "
13703 "up to the `present value' of the income you expect from these "
13704 "copyrights. Which for us means over $1,000,000.\""
13708 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13709 #: freeculture.xml:10430
13711 "You quickly get the point—you as the member of the board and, I trust, "
13712 "you the reader. Each time copyrights are about to expire, every beneficiary "
13713 "in the position of the Robert Frost estate faces the same choice: If they "
13714 "can contribute to get a law passed to extend copyrights, they will benefit "
13715 "greatly from that extension. And so each time copyrights are about to "
13716 "expire, there is a massive amount of lobbying to get the copyright term "
13720 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13721 #: freeculture.xml:10441
13723 "Thus a congressional perpetual motion machine: So long as legislation can be "
13724 "bought (albeit indirectly), there will be all the incentive in the world to "
13725 "buy further extensions of copyright."
13729 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
13730 #: freeculture.xml:10453
13732 "Associated Press, \"Disney Lobbying for Copyright Extension No Mickey Mouse "
13733 "Effort; Congress OKs Bill Granting Creators 20 More Years,\" "
13734 "<citetitle>Chicago Tribune</citetitle>, 17 October 1998, 22."
13738 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
13739 #: freeculture.xml:10460
13741 "See Nick Brown, \"Fair Use No More?: Copyright in the Information Age,\" "
13742 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #49</ulink>."
13746 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
13747 #: freeculture.xml:10468
13749 "Alan K. Ota, \"Disney in Washington: The Mouse That Roars,\" "
13750 "<citetitle>Congressional Quarterly This Week</citetitle>, 8 August 1990, "
13751 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #50</ulink>."
13754 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13755 #: freeculture.xml:10446
13757 "In the lobbying that led to the passage of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term "
13758 "Extension Act, this \"theory\" about incentives was proved real. Ten of the "
13759 "thirteen original sponsors of the act in the House received the maximum "
13760 "contribution from Disney's political action committee; in the Senate, eight "
13761 "of the twelve sponsors received contributions.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
13762 "id=\"0\"/> The RIAA and the MPAA are estimated to have spent over $1.5 "
13763 "million lobbying in the 1998 election cycle. They paid out more than "
13764 "$200,000 in campaign contributions.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> "
13765 "Disney is estimated to have contributed more than $800,000 to reelection "
13766 "campaigns in the cycle.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/>"
13769 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13770 #: freeculture.xml:10475
13772 "Constitutional law is not oblivious to the obvious. Or at least, it need not "
13773 "be. So when I was considering Eldred's complaint, this reality about the "
13774 "never-ending incentives to increase the copyright term was central to my "
13775 "thinking. In my view, a pragmatic court committed to interpreting and "
13776 "applying the Constitution of our framers would see that if Congress has the "
13777 "power to extend existing terms, then there would be no effective "
13778 "constitutional requirement that terms be \"limited.\" If they could extend "
13779 "it once, they would extend it again and again and again."
13783 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13784 #: freeculture.xml:10488
13786 "It was also my judgment that <emphasis>this</emphasis> Supreme Court would "
13787 "not allow Congress to extend existing terms. As anyone close to the Supreme "
13788 "Court's work knows, this Court has increasingly restricted the power of "
13789 "Congress when it has viewed Congress's actions as exceeding the power "
13790 "granted to it by the Constitution. Among constitutional scholars, the most "
13791 "famous example of this trend was the Supreme Court's decision in 1995 to "
13792 "strike down a law that banned the possession of guns near schools."
13795 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13796 #: freeculture.xml:10501
13798 "Since 1937, the Supreme Court had interpreted Congress's granted powers very "
13799 "broadly; so, while the Constitution grants Congress the power to regulate "
13800 "only \"commerce among the several states\" (aka \"interstate commerce\"), "
13801 "the Supreme Court had interpreted that power to include the power to "
13802 "regulate any activity that merely affected interstate commerce."
13805 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13806 #: freeculture.xml:10511
13808 "As the economy grew, this standard increasingly meant that there was no "
13809 "limit to Congress's power to regulate, since just about every activity, when "
13810 "considered on a national scale, affects interstate commerce. A Constitution "
13811 "designed to limit Congress's power was instead interpreted to impose no "
13815 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13816 #: freeculture.xml:10518
13818 "The Supreme Court, under Chief Justice Rehnquist's command, changed that in "
13819 "<citetitle>United States</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle>. The "
13820 "government had argued that possessing guns near schools affected interstate "
13821 "commerce. Guns near schools increase crime, crime lowers property values, "
13822 "and so on. In the oral argument, the Chief Justice asked the government "
13823 "whether there was any activity that would not affect interstate commerce "
13824 "under the reasoning the government advanced. The government said there was "
13825 "not; if Congress says an activity affects interstate commerce, then that "
13826 "activity affects interstate commerce. The Supreme Court, the government "
13827 "said, was not in the position to second-guess Congress."
13831 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
13832 #: freeculture.xml:10533
13834 "<citetitle>United States</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle>, 514 "
13835 "U.S. 549, 564 (1995)."
13839 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
13840 #: freeculture.xml:10540
13842 "<citetitle>United States</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Morrison</citetitle>, 529 "
13846 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13847 #: freeculture.xml:10531
13849 "\"We pause to consider the implications of the government's arguments,\" the "
13850 "Chief Justice wrote.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> If anything "
13851 "Congress says is interstate commerce must therefore be considered interstate "
13852 "commerce, then there would be no limit to Congress's power. The decision in "
13853 "<citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> was reaffirmed five years later in "
13854 "<citetitle>United States</citetitle> "
13855 "v. <citetitle>Morrison</citetitle>.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
13859 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
13860 #: freeculture.xml:10547
13862 "If it is a principle about enumerated powers, then the principle carries "
13863 "from one enumerated power to another. The animating point in the context of "
13864 "the Commerce Clause was that the interpretation offered by the government "
13865 "would allow the government unending power to regulate commerce—the "
13866 "limitation to interstate commerce notwithstanding. The same point is true in "
13867 "the context of the Copyright Clause. Here, too, the government's "
13868 "interpretation would allow the government unending power to regulate "
13869 "copyrights—the limitation to \"limited times\" notwithstanding."
13873 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13874 #: freeculture.xml:10544
13876 "If a principle were at work here, then it should apply to the Progress "
13877 "Clause as much as the Commerce Clause.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
13878 "id=\"0\"/> And if it is applied to the Progress Clause, the principle should "
13879 "yield the conclusion that Congress can't extend an existing term. If "
13880 "Congress could extend an existing term, then there would be no \"stopping "
13881 "point\" to Congress's power over terms, though the Constitution expressly "
13882 "states that there is such a limit. Thus, the same principle applied to the "
13883 "power to grant copyrights should entail that Congress is not allowed to "
13884 "extend the term of existing copyrights."
13887 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13888 #: freeculture.xml:10568
13890 "<emphasis>If</emphasis>, that is, the principle announced in "
13891 "<citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> stood for a principle. Many believed the "
13892 "decision in <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> stood for politics—a "
13893 "conservative Supreme Court, which believed in states' rights, using its "
13894 "power over Congress to advance its own personal political preferences. But I "
13895 "rejected that view of the Supreme Court's decision. Indeed, shortly after "
13896 "the decision, I wrote an article demonstrating the \"fidelity\" in such an "
13897 "interpretation of the Constitution. The idea that the Supreme Court decides "
13898 "cases based upon its politics struck me as extraordinarily boring. I was "
13899 "not going to devote my life to teaching constitutional law if these nine "
13900 "Justices were going to be petty politicians."
13903 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13904 #: freeculture.xml:10581
13906 "Now let's pause for a moment to make sure we understand what the argument in "
13907 "<citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> was not about. By insisting on the "
13908 "Constitution's limits to copyright, obviously Eldred was not endorsing "
13909 "piracy. Indeed, in an obvious sense, he was fighting a kind of "
13910 "piracy—piracy of the public domain. When Robert Frost wrote his work "
13911 "and when Walt Disney created Mickey Mouse, the maximum copyright term was "
13912 "just fifty-six years. Because of interim changes, Frost and Disney had "
13913 "already enjoyed a seventy-five-year monopoly for their work. They had gotten "
13914 "the benefit of the bargain that the Constitution envisions: In exchange for "
13915 "a monopoly protected for fifty-six years, they created new work. But now "
13916 "these entities were using their power—expressed through the power of "
13917 "lobbyists' money—to get another twenty-year dollop of monopoly. That "
13918 "twenty-year dollop would be taken from the public domain. Eric Eldred was "
13919 "fighting a piracy that affects us all."
13923 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
13924 #: freeculture.xml:10604
13926 "Brief of the Nashville Songwriters Association, "
13927 "<citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, 537 U.S. "
13928 "186 (2003) (No. 01-618), n.10, available at <ulink "
13929 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #51</ulink>."
13932 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
13933 #: freeculture.xml:10612
13934 msgid "Nashville Songwriters Association"
13937 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13938 #: freeculture.xml:10598
13940 "Some people view the public domain with contempt. In their brief before the "
13941 "Supreme Court, the Nashville Songwriters Association wrote that the public "
13942 "domain is nothing more than \"legal piracy.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
13943 "id=\"0\"/> But it is not piracy when the law allows it; and in our "
13944 "constitutional system, our law requires it. Some may not like the "
13945 "Constitution's requirements, but that doesn't make the Constitution a "
13946 "pirate's charter. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
13949 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13950 #: freeculture.xml:10615
13952 "As we've seen, our constitutional system requires limits on copyright as a "
13953 "way to assure that copyright holders do not too heavily influence the "
13954 "development and distribution of our culture. Yet, as Eric Eldred discovered, "
13955 "we have set up a system that assures that copyright terms will be repeatedly "
13956 "extended, and extended, and extended. We have created the perfect storm for "
13957 "the public domain. Copyrights have not expired, and will not expire, so long "
13958 "as Congress is free to be bought to extend them again."
13961 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13962 #: freeculture.xml:10627
13964 "It is valuable copyrights that are responsible for terms being extended. "
13965 "Mickey Mouse and \"Rhapsody in Blue.\" These works are too valuable for "
13966 "copyright owners to ignore. But the real harm to our society from copyright "
13967 "extensions is not that Mickey Mouse remains Disney's. Forget Mickey "
13968 "Mouse. Forget Robert Frost. Forget all the works from the 1920s and 1930s "
13969 "that have continuing commercial value. The real harm of term extension comes "
13970 "not from these famous works. The real harm is to the works that are not "
13971 "famous, not commercially exploited, and no longer available as a result."
13975 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
13976 #: freeculture.xml:10648
13978 "The figure of 2 percent is an extrapolation from the study by the "
13979 "Congressional Research Service, in light of the estimated renewal "
13980 "ranges. See Brief of Petitioners, <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
13981 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, 7, available at <ulink "
13982 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #52</ulink>."
13985 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13986 #: freeculture.xml:10642
13988 "If you look at the work created in the first twenty years (1923 to 1942) "
13989 "affected by the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, 2 percent of that "
13990 "work has any continuing commercial value. It was the copyright holders for "
13991 "that 2 percent who pushed the CTEA through. But the law and its effect were "
13992 "not limited to that 2 percent. The law extended the terms of copyright "
13993 "generally.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
13997 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13998 #: freeculture.xml:10657
14000 "Think practically about the consequence of this extension—practically, "
14001 "as a businessperson, and not as a lawyer eager for more legal work. In 1930, "
14002 "10,047 books were published. In 2000, 174 of those books were still in "
14003 "print. Let's say you were Brewster Kahle, and you wanted to make available "
14004 "to the world in your iArchive project the remaining 9,873. What would you "
14008 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14009 #: freeculture.xml:10669
14011 "Well, first, you'd have to determine which of the 9,873 books were still "
14012 "under copyright. That requires going to a library (these data are not "
14013 "on-line) and paging through tomes of books, cross-checking the titles and "
14014 "authors of the 9,873 books with the copyright registration and renewal "
14015 "records for works published in 1930. That will produce a list of books still "
14019 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14020 #: freeculture.xml:10677
14022 "Then for the books still under copyright, you would need to locate the "
14023 "current copyright owners. How would you do that?"
14026 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14027 #: freeculture.xml:10681
14029 "Most people think that there must be a list of these copyright owners "
14030 "somewhere. Practical people think this way. How could there be thousands and "
14031 "thousands of government monopolies without there being at least a list?"
14034 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14035 #: freeculture.xml:10688
14037 "But there is no list. There may be a name from 1930, and then in 1959, of "
14038 "the person who registered the copyright. But just think practically about "
14039 "how impossibly difficult it would be to track down thousands of such "
14040 "records—especially since the person who registered is not necessarily "
14041 "the current owner. And we're just talking about 1930!"
14044 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14045 #: freeculture.xml:10697
14047 "\"But there isn't a list of who owns property generally,\" the apologists "
14048 "for the system respond. \"Why should there be a list of copyright owners?\""
14051 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14052 #: freeculture.xml:10702
14054 "Well, actually, if you think about it, there <emphasis>are</emphasis> plenty "
14055 "of lists of who owns what property. Think about deeds on houses, or titles "
14056 "to cars. And where there isn't a list, the code of real space is pretty "
14057 "good at suggesting who the owner of a bit of property is. (A swing set in "
14058 "your backyard is probably yours.) So formally or informally, we have a "
14059 "pretty good way to know who owns what tangible property."
14063 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14064 #: freeculture.xml:10711
14066 "So: You walk down a street and see a house. You can know who owns the house "
14067 "by looking it up in the courthouse registry. If you see a car, there is "
14068 "ordinarily a license plate that will link the owner to the car. If you see a "
14069 "bunch of children's toys sitting on the front lawn of a house, it's fairly "
14070 "easy to determine who owns the toys. And if you happen to see a baseball "
14071 "lying in a gutter on the side of the road, look around for a second for some "
14072 "kids playing ball. If you don't see any kids, then okay: Here's a bit of "
14073 "property whose owner we can't easily determine. It is the exception that "
14074 "proves the rule: that we ordinarily know quite well who owns what property."
14077 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14078 #: freeculture.xml:10726
14080 "Compare this story to intangible property. You go into a library. The "
14081 "library owns the books. But who owns the copyrights? As I've already "
14082 "described, there's no list of copyright owners. There are authors' names, of "
14083 "course, but their copyrights could have been assigned, or passed down in an "
14084 "estate like Grandma's old jewelry. To know who owns what, you would have to "
14085 "hire a private detective. The bottom line: The owner cannot easily be "
14086 "located. And in a regime like ours, in which it is a felony to use such "
14087 "property without the property owner's permission, the property isn't going "
14091 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14092 #: freeculture.xml:10738
14094 "The consequence with respect to old books is that they won't be digitized, "
14095 "and hence will simply rot away on shelves. But the consequence for other "
14096 "creative works is much more dire."
14099 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
14100 #: freeculture.xml:10743
14101 msgid "Agee, Michael"
14104 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
14105 #: freeculture.xml:10744
14106 msgid "Laurel and Hardy Films"
14110 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14111 #: freeculture.xml:10757
14113 "See David G. Savage, \"High Court Scene of Showdown on Copyright Law,\" "
14114 "<citetitle>Los Angeles Times</citetitle>, 6 October 2002; David Streitfeld, "
14115 "\"Classic Movies, Songs, Books at Stake; Supreme Court Hears Arguments Today "
14116 "on Striking Down Copyright Extension,\" <citetitle>Orlando Sentinel "
14117 "Tribune</citetitle>, 9 October 2002."
14120 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
14121 #: freeculture.xml:10763
14122 msgid "Lucky Dog, The"
14125 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14126 #: freeculture.xml:10746
14128 "Consider the story of Michael Agee, chairman of Hal Roach Studios, which "
14129 "owns the copyrights for the Laurel and Hardy films. Agee is a direct "
14130 "beneficiary of the Bono Act. The Laurel and Hardy films were made between "
14131 "1921 and 1951. Only one of these films, <citetitle>The Lucky "
14132 "Dog</citetitle>, is currently out of copyright. But for the CTEA, films made "
14133 "after 1923 would have begun entering the public domain. Because Agee "
14134 "controls the exclusive rights for these popular films, he makes a great deal "
14135 "of money. According to one estimate, \"Roach has sold about 60,000 "
14136 "videocassettes and 50,000 DVDs of the duo's silent films.\"<placeholder "
14137 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
14140 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14141 #: freeculture.xml:10766
14143 "Yet Agee opposed the CTEA. His reasons demonstrate a rare virtue in this "
14144 "culture: selflessness. He argued in a brief before the Supreme Court that "
14145 "the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act will, if left standing, destroy "
14146 "a whole generation of American film."
14150 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14151 #: freeculture.xml:10772
14153 "His argument is straightforward. A tiny fraction of this work has any "
14154 "continuing commercial value. The rest—to the extent it survives at "
14155 "all—sits in vaults gathering dust. It may be that some of this work "
14156 "not now commercially valuable will be deemed to be valuable by the owners of "
14157 "the vaults. For this to occur, however, the commercial benefit from the work "
14158 "must exceed the costs of making the work available for distribution."
14162 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14163 #: freeculture.xml:10790
14165 "Brief of Hal Roach Studios and Michael Agee as Amicus Curiae Supporting the "
14166 "Petitoners, <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
14167 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, 537 U.S. 186 (2003) (No. 01- 618), "
14168 "12. See also Brief of Amicus Curiae filed on behalf of Petitioners by the "
14169 "Internet Archive, <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
14170 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, available at <ulink "
14171 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #53</ulink>."
14174 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14175 #: freeculture.xml:10783
14177 "We can't know the benefits, but we do know a lot about the costs. For most "
14178 "of the history of film, the costs of restoring film were very high; digital "
14179 "technology has lowered these costs substantially. While it cost more than "
14180 "$10,000 to restore a ninety-minute black-and-white film in 1993, it can now "
14181 "cost as little as $100 to digitize one hour of mm film.<placeholder "
14182 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
14185 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14186 #: freeculture.xml:10800
14188 "Restoration technology is not the only cost, nor the most important. "
14189 "Lawyers, too, are a cost, and increasingly, a very important one. In "
14190 "addition to preserving the film, a distributor needs to secure the rights. "
14191 "And to secure the rights for a film that is under copyright, you need to "
14192 "locate the copyright owner."
14195 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14196 #: freeculture.xml:10808
14198 "Or more accurately, <emphasis>owners</emphasis>. As we've seen, there isn't "
14199 "only a single copyright associated with a film; there are many. There isn't "
14200 "a single person whom you can contact about those copyrights; there are as "
14201 "many as can hold the rights, which turns out to be an extremely large "
14202 "number. Thus the costs of clearing the rights to these films is "
14203 "exceptionally high."
14206 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14207 #: freeculture.xml:10816
14209 "\"But can't you just restore the film, distribute it, and then pay the "
14210 "copyright owner when she shows up?\" Sure, if you want to commit a "
14211 "felony. And even if you're not worried about committing a felony, when she "
14212 "does show up, she'll have the right to sue you for all the profits you have "
14213 "made. So, if you're successful, you can be fairly confident you'll be "
14214 "getting a call from someone's lawyer. And if you're not successful, you "
14215 "won't make enough to cover the costs of your own lawyer. Either way, you "
14216 "have to talk to a lawyer. And as is too often the case, saying you have to "
14217 "talk to a lawyer is the same as saying you won't make any money."
14221 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14222 #: freeculture.xml:10827
14224 "For some films, the benefit of releasing the film may well exceed these "
14225 "costs. But for the vast majority of them, there is no way the benefit would "
14226 "outweigh the legal costs. Thus, for the vast majority of old films, Agee "
14227 "argued, the film will not be restored and distributed until the copyright "
14231 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14232 #: freeculture.xml:10837
14234 "But by the time the copyright for these films expires, the film will have "
14235 "expired. These films were produced on nitrate-based stock, and nitrate stock "
14236 "dissolves over time. They will be gone, and the metal canisters in which "
14237 "they are now stored will be filled with nothing more than dust."
14240 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14241 #: freeculture.xml:10845
14243 "Of all the creative work produced by humans anywhere, a tiny fraction has "
14244 "continuing commercial value. For that tiny fraction, the copyright is a "
14245 "crucially important legal device. For that tiny fraction, the copyright "
14246 "creates incentives to produce and distribute the creative work. For that "
14247 "tiny fraction, the copyright acts as an \"engine of free expression.\""
14250 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14251 #: freeculture.xml:10854
14253 "But even for that tiny fraction, the actual time during which the creative "
14254 "work has a commercial life is extremely short. As I've indicated, most books "
14255 "go out of print within one year. The same is true of music and "
14256 "film. Commercial culture is sharklike. It must keep moving. And when a "
14257 "creative work falls out of favor with the commercial distributors, the "
14258 "commercial life ends."
14261 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14262 #: freeculture.xml:10864
14264 "Yet that doesn't mean the life of the creative work ends. We don't keep "
14265 "libraries of books in order to compete with Barnes & Noble, and we don't "
14266 "have archives of films because we expect people to choose between spending "
14267 "Friday night watching new movies and spending Friday night watching a 1930 "
14268 "news documentary. The noncommercial life of culture is important and "
14269 "valuable—for entertainment but also, and more importantly, for "
14270 "knowledge. To understand who we are, and where we came from, and how we have "
14271 "made the mistakes that we have, we need to have access to this history."
14275 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14276 #: freeculture.xml:10877
14278 "Copyrights in this context do not drive an engine of free expression. In "
14279 "this context, there is no need for an exclusive right. Copyrights in this "
14280 "context do no good."
14283 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14284 #: freeculture.xml:10884
14286 "Yet, for most of our history, they also did little harm. For most of our "
14287 "history, when a work ended its commercial life, there was no "
14288 "<emphasis>copyright-related use</emphasis> that would be inhibited by an "
14289 "exclusive right. When a book went out of print, you could not buy it from a "
14290 "publisher. But you could still buy it from a used book store, and when a "
14291 "used book store sells it, in America, at least, there is no need to pay the "
14292 "copyright owner anything. Thus, the ordinary use of a book after its "
14293 "commercial life ended was a use that was independent of copyright law."
14296 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14297 #: freeculture.xml:10895
14299 "The same was effectively true of film. Because the costs of restoring a "
14300 "film—the real economic costs, not the lawyer costs—were so high, "
14301 "it was never at all feasible to preserve or restore film. Like the remains "
14302 "of a great dinner, when it's over, it's over. Once a film passed out of its "
14303 "commercial life, it may have been archived for a bit, but that was the end "
14304 "of its life so long as the market didn't have more to offer."
14307 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14308 #: freeculture.xml:10904
14310 "In other words, though copyright has been relatively short for most of our "
14311 "history, long copyrights wouldn't have mattered for the works that lost "
14312 "their commercial value. Long copyrights for these works would not have "
14313 "interfered with anything."
14316 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14317 #: freeculture.xml:10910
14318 msgid "But this situation has now changed."
14321 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14322 #: freeculture.xml:10913
14324 "One crucially important consequence of the emergence of digital technologies "
14325 "is to enable the archive that Brewster Kahle dreams of. Digital "
14326 "technologies now make it possible to preserve and give access to all sorts "
14327 "of knowledge. Once a book goes out of print, we can now imagine digitizing "
14328 "it and making it available to everyone, forever. Once a film goes out of "
14329 "distribution, we could digitize it and make it available to everyone, "
14330 "forever. Digital technologies give new life to copyrighted material after it "
14331 "passes out of its commercial life. It is now possible to preserve and assure "
14332 "universal access to this knowledge and culture, whereas before it was not."
14336 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14337 #: freeculture.xml:10926
14339 "And now copyright law does get in the way. Every step of producing this "
14340 "digital archive of our culture infringes on the exclusive right of "
14341 "copyright. To digitize a book is to copy it. To do that requires permission "
14342 "of the copyright owner. The same with music, film, or any other aspect of "
14343 "our culture protected by copyright. The effort to make these things "
14344 "available to history, or to researchers, or to those who just want to "
14345 "explore, is now inhibited by a set of rules that were written for a "
14346 "radically different context."
14349 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14350 #: freeculture.xml:10936
14352 "Here is the core of the harm that comes from extending terms: Now that "
14353 "technology enables us to rebuild the library of Alexandria, the law gets in "
14354 "the way. And it doesn't get in the way for any useful "
14355 "<emphasis>copyright</emphasis> purpose, for the purpose of copyright is to "
14356 "enable the commercial market that spreads culture. No, we are talking about "
14357 "culture after it has lived its commercial life. In this context, copyright "
14358 "is serving no purpose <emphasis>at all</emphasis> related to the spread of "
14359 "knowledge. In this context, copyright is not an engine of free "
14360 "expression. Copyright is a brake."
14363 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14364 #: freeculture.xml:10947
14366 "You may well ask, \"But if digital technologies lower the costs for Brewster "
14367 "Kahle, then they will lower the costs for Random House, too. So won't "
14368 "Random House do as well as Brewster Kahle in spreading culture widely?\""
14371 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14372 #: freeculture.xml:10953
14374 "Maybe. Someday. But there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that "
14375 "publishers would be as complete as libraries. If Barnes & Noble offered "
14376 "to lend books from its stores for a low price, would that eliminate the need "
14377 "for libraries? Only if you think that the only role of a library is to serve "
14378 "what \"the market\" would demand. But if you think the role of a library is "
14379 "bigger than this—if you think its role is to archive culture, whether "
14380 "there's a demand for any particular bit of that culture or not—then we "
14381 "can't count on the commercial market to do our library work for us."
14385 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14386 #: freeculture.xml:10976
14388 "Jason Schultz, \"The Myth of the 1976 Copyright `Chaos' Theory,\" 20 "
14389 "December 2002, available at <ulink "
14390 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #54</ulink>."
14393 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14394 #: freeculture.xml:10964
14396 "I would be the first to agree that it should do as much as it can: We should "
14397 "rely upon the market as much as possible to spread and enable culture. My "
14398 "message is absolutely not antimarket. But where we see the market is not "
14399 "doing the job, then we should allow nonmarket forces the freedom to fill the "
14400 "gaps. As one researcher calculated for American culture, 94 percent of the "
14401 "films, books, and music produced between and 1946 is not commercially "
14402 "available. However much you love the commercial market, if access is a "
14403 "value, then 6 percent is a failure to provide that value.<placeholder "
14404 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
14407 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14408 #: freeculture.xml:10983
14410 "In January 1999, we filed a lawsuit on Eric Eldred's behalf in federal "
14411 "district court in Washington, D.C., asking the court to declare the Sonny "
14412 "Bono Copyright Term Extension Act unconstitutional. The two central claims "
14413 "that we made were (1) that extending existing terms violated the "
14414 "Constitution's \"limited Times\" requirement, and (2) that extending terms "
14415 "by another twenty years violated the First Amendment."
14418 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14419 #: freeculture.xml:10991
14421 "The district court dismissed our claims without even hearing an argument. A "
14422 "panel of the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit also dismissed our "
14423 "claims, though after hearing an extensive argument. But that decision at "
14424 "least had a dissent, by one of the most conservative judges on that "
14425 "court. That dissent gave our claims life."
14428 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14429 #: freeculture.xml:10998
14431 "Judge David Sentelle said the CTEA violated the requirement that copyrights "
14432 "be for \"limited Times\" only. His argument was as elegant as it was simple: "
14433 "If Congress can extend existing terms, then there is no \"stopping point\" "
14434 "to Congress's power under the Copyright Clause. The power to extend existing "
14435 "terms means Congress is not required to grant terms that are \"limited.\" "
14436 "Thus, Judge Sentelle argued, the court had to interpret the term \"limited "
14437 "Times\" to give it meaning. And the best interpretation, Judge Sentelle "
14438 "argued, would be to deny Congress the power to extend existing terms."
14441 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14442 #: freeculture.xml:11009
14444 "We asked the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit as a whole to hear the "
14445 "case. Cases are ordinarily heard in panels of three, except for important "
14446 "cases or cases that raise issues specific to the circuit as a whole, where "
14447 "the court will sit \"en banc\" to hear the case."
14451 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14452 #: freeculture.xml:11015
14454 "The Court of Appeals rejected our request to hear the case en banc. This "
14455 "time, Judge Sentelle was joined by the most liberal member of the "
14456 "D.C. Circuit, Judge David Tatel. Both the most conservative and the most "
14457 "liberal judges in the D.C. Circuit believed Congress had overstepped its "
14461 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14462 #: freeculture.xml:11024
14464 "It was here that most expected Eldred v. Ashcroft would die, for the Supreme "
14465 "Court rarely reviews any decision by a court of appeals. (It hears about one "
14466 "hundred cases a year, out of more than five thousand appeals.) And it "
14467 "practically never reviews a decision that upholds a statute when no other "
14468 "court has yet reviewed the statute."
14471 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14472 #: freeculture.xml:11031
14474 "But in February 2002, the Supreme Court surprised the world by granting our "
14475 "petition to review the D.C. Circuit opinion. Argument was set for October of "
14476 "2002. The summer would be spent writing briefs and preparing for argument."
14479 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14480 #: freeculture.xml:11037
14482 "It is over a year later as I write these words. It is still astonishingly "
14483 "hard. If you know anything at all about this story, you know that we lost "
14484 "the appeal. And if you know something more than just the minimum, you "
14485 "probably think there was no way this case could have been won. After our "
14486 "defeat, I received literally thousands of missives by well-wishers and "
14487 "supporters, thanking me for my work on behalf of this noble but doomed "
14488 "cause. And none from this pile was more significant to me than the e-mail "
14489 "from my client, Eric Eldred."
14492 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14493 #: freeculture.xml:11047
14495 "But my client and these friends were wrong. This case could have been "
14496 "won. It should have been won. And no matter how hard I try to retell this "
14497 "story to myself, I can never escape believing that my own mistake lost it."
14500 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
14501 #: freeculture.xml:11052 freeculture.xml:11066
14502 msgid "Steward, Geoffrey"
14506 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14507 #: freeculture.xml:11054
14509 "The mistake was made early, though it became obvious only at the very "
14510 "end. Our case had been supported from the very beginning by an extraordinary "
14511 "lawyer, Geoffrey Stewart, and by the law firm he had moved to, Jones, Day, "
14512 "Reavis and Pogue. Jones Day took a great deal of heat from its "
14513 "copyright-protectionist clients for supporting us. They ignored this "
14514 "pressure (something that few law firms today would ever do), and throughout "
14515 "the case, they gave it everything they could."
14518 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
14519 #: freeculture.xml:11064 freeculture.xml:11409 freeculture.xml:11424 freeculture.xml:11517 freeculture.xml:11731 freeculture.xml:11762 freeculture.xml:11855
14523 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
14524 #: freeculture.xml:11065
14525 msgid "Bromberg, Dan"
14528 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14529 #: freeculture.xml:11068
14531 "There were three key lawyers on the case from Jones Day. Geoff Stewart was "
14532 "the first, but then Dan Bromberg and Don Ayer became quite "
14533 "involved. Bromberg and Ayer in particular had a common view about how this "
14534 "case would be won: We would only win, they repeatedly told me, if we could "
14535 "make the issue seem \"important\" to the Supreme Court. It had to seem as if "
14536 "dramatic harm were being done to free speech and free culture; otherwise, "
14537 "they would never vote against \"the most powerful media companies in the "
14541 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14542 #: freeculture.xml:11078
14544 "I hate this view of the law. Of course I thought the Sonny Bono Act was a "
14545 "dramatic harm to free speech and free culture. Of course I still think it "
14546 "is. But the idea that the Supreme Court decides the law based on how "
14547 "important they believe the issues are is just wrong. It might be \"right\" "
14548 "as in \"true,\" I thought, but it is \"wrong\" as in \"it just shouldn't be "
14549 "that way.\" As I believed that any faithful interpretation of what the "
14550 "framers of our Constitution did would yield the conclusion that the CTEA was "
14551 "unconstitutional, and as I believed that any faithful interpretation of what "
14552 "the First Amendment means would yield the conclusion that the power to "
14553 "extend existing copyright terms is unconstitutional, I was not persuaded "
14554 "that we had to sell our case like soap. Just as a law that bans the "
14555 "swastika is unconstitutional not because the Court likes Nazis but because "
14556 "such a law would violate the Constitution, so too, in my view, would the "
14557 "Court decide whether Congress's law was constitutional based on the "
14558 "Constitution, not based on whether they liked the values that the framers "
14559 "put in the Constitution."
14562 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14563 #: freeculture.xml:11099
14565 "In any case, I thought, the Court must already see the danger and the harm "
14566 "caused by this sort of law. Why else would they grant review? There was no "
14567 "reason to hear the case in the Supreme Court if they weren't convinced that "
14568 "this regulation was harmful. So in my view, we didn't need to persuade them "
14569 "that this law was bad, we needed to show why it was unconstitutional."
14573 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14574 #: freeculture.xml:11107
14576 "There was one way, however, in which I felt politics would matter and in "
14577 "which I thought a response was appropriate. I was convinced that the Court "
14578 "would not hear our arguments if it thought these were just the arguments of "
14579 "a group of lefty loons. This Supreme Court was not about to launch into a "
14580 "new field of judicial review if it seemed that this field of review was "
14581 "simply the preference of a small political minority. Although my focus in "
14582 "the case was not to demonstrate how bad the Sonny Bono Act was but to "
14583 "demonstrate that it was unconstitutional, my hope was to make this argument "
14584 "against a background of briefs that covered the full range of political "
14585 "views. To show that this claim against the CTEA was grounded in "
14586 "<emphasis>law</emphasis> and not politics, then, we tried to gather the "
14587 "widest range of credible critics—credible not because they were rich "
14588 "and famous, but because they, in the aggregate, demonstrated that this law "
14589 "was unconstitutional regardless of one's politics."
14592 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
14593 #: freeculture.xml:11138 freeculture.xml:11164
14594 msgid "Eagle Forum"
14597 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
14598 #: freeculture.xml:11139
14599 msgid "Schlafly, Phyllis"
14602 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14603 #: freeculture.xml:11126
14605 "The first step happened all by itself. Phyllis Schlafly's organization, "
14606 "Eagle Forum, had been an opponent of the CTEA from the very beginning. "
14607 "Mrs. Schlafly viewed the CTEA as a sellout by Congress. In November 1998, "
14608 "she wrote a stinging editorial attacking the Republican Congress for "
14609 "allowing the law to pass. As she wrote, \"Do you sometimes wonder why bills "
14610 "that create a financial windfall to narrow special interests slide easily "
14611 "through the intricate legislative process, while bills that benefit the "
14612 "general public seem to get bogged down?\" The answer, as the editorial "
14613 "documented, was the power of money. Schlafly enumerated Disney's "
14614 "contributions to the key players on the committees. It was money, not "
14615 "justice, that gave Mickey Mouse twenty more years in Disney's control, "
14616 "Schlafly argued. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
14617 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
14620 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14621 #: freeculture.xml:11142
14623 "In the Court of Appeals, Eagle Forum was eager to file a brief supporting "
14624 "our position. Their brief made the argument that became the core claim in "
14625 "the Supreme Court: If Congress can extend the term of existing copyrights, "
14626 "there is no limit to Congress's power to set terms. That strong "
14627 "conservative argument persuaded a strong conservative judge, Judge Sentelle."
14630 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14631 #: freeculture.xml:11150
14633 "In the Supreme Court, the briefs on our side were about as diverse as it "
14634 "gets. They included an extraordinary historical brief by the Free Software "
14635 "Foundation (home of the GNU project that made GNU/ Linux possible). They "
14636 "included a powerful brief about the costs of uncertainty by Intel. There "
14637 "were two law professors' briefs, one by copyright scholars and one by First "
14638 "Amendment scholars. There was an exhaustive and uncontroverted brief by the "
14639 "world's experts in the history of the Progress Clause. And of course, there "
14640 "was a new brief by Eagle Forum, repeating and strengthening its arguments. "
14641 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
14642 "id=\"1\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder "
14643 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/>"
14646 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
14647 #: freeculture.xml:11171
14648 msgid "American Association of Law Libraries"
14651 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
14652 #: freeculture.xml:11172
14653 msgid "National Writers Union"
14656 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14657 #: freeculture.xml:11167
14659 "Those briefs framed a legal argument. Then to support the legal argument, "
14660 "there were a number of powerful briefs by libraries and archives, including "
14661 "the Internet Archive, the American Association of Law Libraries, and the "
14662 "National Writers Union. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> "
14663 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
14666 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14667 #: freeculture.xml:11175
14669 "But two briefs captured the policy argument best. One made the argument I've "
14670 "already described: A brief by Hal Roach Studios argued that unless the law "
14671 "was struck, a whole generation of American film would disappear. The other "
14672 "made the economic argument absolutely clear."
14675 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
14676 #: freeculture.xml:11181
14677 msgid "Akerlof, George"
14680 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
14681 #: freeculture.xml:11182
14682 msgid "Arrow, Kenneth"
14685 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
14686 #: freeculture.xml:11183
14687 msgid "Buchanan, James"
14690 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
14691 #: freeculture.xml:11184
14692 msgid "Coase, Ronald"
14695 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
14696 #: freeculture.xml:11185
14697 msgid "Friedman, Milton"
14700 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14701 #: freeculture.xml:11187
14703 "This economists' brief was signed by seventeen economists, including five "
14704 "Nobel Prize winners, including Ronald Coase, James Buchanan, Milton "
14705 "Friedman, Kenneth Arrow, and George Akerlof. The economists, as the list of "
14706 "Nobel winners demonstrates, spanned the political spectrum. Their "
14707 "conclusions were powerful: There was no plausible claim that extending the "
14708 "terms of existing copyrights would do anything to increase incentives to "
14709 "create. Such extensions were nothing more than \"rent-seeking\"—the "
14710 "fancy term economists use to describe special-interest legislation gone "
14714 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
14715 #: freeculture.xml:11210 freeculture.xml:11223 freeculture.xml:11415 freeculture.xml:11767
14716 msgid "Fried, Charles"
14719 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14720 #: freeculture.xml:11198
14722 "The same effort at balance was reflected in the legal team we gathered to "
14723 "write our briefs in the case. The Jones Day lawyers had been with us from "
14724 "the start. But when the case got to the Supreme Court, we added three "
14725 "lawyers to help us frame this argument to this Court: Alan Morrison, a "
14726 "lawyer from Public Citizen, a Washington group that had made constitutional "
14727 "history with a series of seminal victories in the Supreme Court defending "
14728 "individual rights; my colleague and dean, Kathleen Sullivan, who had argued "
14729 "many cases in the Court, and who had advised us early on about a First "
14730 "Amendment strategy; and finally, former solicitor general Charles Fried. "
14731 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
14734 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14735 #: freeculture.xml:11213
14737 "Fried was a special victory for our side. Every other former solicitor "
14738 "general was hired by the other side to defend Congress's power to give media "
14739 "companies the special favor of extended copyright terms. Fried was the only "
14740 "one who turned down that lucrative assignment to stand up for something he "
14741 "believed in. He had been Ronald Reagan's chief lawyer in the Supreme "
14742 "Court. He had helped craft the line of cases that limited Congress's power "
14743 "in the context of the Commerce Clause. And while he had argued many "
14744 "positions in the Supreme Court that I personally disagreed with, his joining "
14745 "the cause was a vote of confidence in our argument. <placeholder "
14746 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
14749 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14750 #: freeculture.xml:11226
14752 "The government, in defending the statute, had its collection of friends, as "
14753 "well. Significantly, however, none of these \"friends\" included historians "
14754 "or economists. The briefs on the other side of the case were written "
14755 "exclusively by major media companies, congressmen, and copyright holders."
14758 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14759 #: freeculture.xml:11233
14761 "The media companies were not surprising. They had the most to gain from the "
14762 "law. The congressmen were not surprising either—they were defending "
14763 "their power and, indirectly, the gravy train of contributions such power "
14764 "induced. And of course it was not surprising that the copyright holders "
14765 "would defend the idea that they should continue to have the right to control "
14766 "who did what with content they wanted to control."
14770 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14771 #: freeculture.xml:11249
14773 "Brief of Amici Dr. Seuss Enterprise et al., <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
14774 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, 537 U.S. (2003) (No. 01-618), 19."
14778 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14779 #: freeculture.xml:11257
14781 "Dinitia Smith, \"Immortal Words, Immortal Royalties? Even Mickey Mouse Joins "
14782 "the Fray,\" <citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 28 March 1998, B7."
14785 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
14786 #: freeculture.xml:11264
14787 msgid "Gershwin, George"
14790 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14791 #: freeculture.xml:11242
14793 "Dr. Seuss's representatives, for example, argued that it was better for the "
14794 "Dr. Seuss estate to control what happened to Dr. Seuss's work— better "
14795 "than allowing it to fall into the public domain—because if this "
14796 "creativity were in the public domain, then people could use it to \"glorify "
14797 "drugs or to create pornography.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
14798 "That was also the motive of the Gershwin estate, which defended its "
14799 "\"protection\" of the work of George Gershwin. They refuse, for example, to "
14800 "license <citetitle>Porgy and Bess</citetitle> to anyone who refuses to use "
14801 "African Americans in the cast.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> "
14802 "That's their view of how this part of American culture should be controlled, "
14803 "and they wanted this law to help them effect that control. <placeholder "
14804 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/>"
14807 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14808 #: freeculture.xml:11267
14810 "This argument made clear a theme that is rarely noticed in this debate. "
14811 "When Congress decides to extend the term of existing copyrights, Congress is "
14812 "making a choice about which speakers it will favor. Famous and beloved "
14813 "copyright owners, such as the Gershwin estate and Dr. Seuss, come to "
14814 "Congress and say, \"Give us twenty years to control the speech about these "
14815 "icons of American culture. We'll do better with them than anyone else.\" "
14816 "Congress of course likes to reward the popular and famous by giving them "
14817 "what they want. But when Congress gives people an exclusive right to speak "
14818 "in a certain way, that's just what the First Amendment is traditionally "
14822 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14823 #: freeculture.xml:11279
14825 "We argued as much in a final brief. Not only would upholding the CTEA mean "
14826 "that there was no limit to the power of Congress to extend "
14827 "copyrights—extensions that would further concentrate the market; it "
14828 "would also mean that there was no limit to Congress's power to play "
14829 "favorites, through copyright, with who has the right to speak. Between "
14830 "February and October, there was little I did beyond preparing for this "
14831 "case. Early on, as I said, I set the strategy."
14834 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14835 #: freeculture.xml:11288
14837 "The Supreme Court was divided into two important camps. One camp we called "
14838 "\"the Conservatives.\" The other we called \"the Rest.\" The Conservatives "
14839 "included Chief Justice Rehnquist, Justice O'Connor, Justice Scalia, Justice "
14840 "Kennedy, and Justice Thomas. These five had been the most consistent in "
14841 "limiting Congress's power. They were the five who had supported the "
14842 "<citetitle>Lopez/Morrison</citetitle> line of cases that said that an "
14843 "enumerated power had to be interpreted to assure that Congress's powers had "
14847 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
14848 #: freeculture.xml:11297 freeculture.xml:11321 freeculture.xml:11660 freeculture.xml:11672
14849 msgid "Breyer, Stephen"
14853 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14854 #: freeculture.xml:11299
14856 "The Rest were the four Justices who had strongly opposed limits on "
14857 "Congress's power. These four—Justice Stevens, Justice Souter, Justice "
14858 "Ginsburg, and Justice Breyer—had repeatedly argued that the "
14859 "Constitution gives Congress broad discretion to decide how best to implement "
14860 "its powers. In case after case, these justices had argued that the Court's "
14861 "role should be one of deference. Though the votes of these four justices "
14862 "were the votes that I personally had most consistently agreed with, they "
14863 "were also the votes that we were least likely to get."
14866 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14867 #: freeculture.xml:11311
14869 "In particular, the least likely was Justice Ginsburg's. In addition to her "
14870 "general view about deference to Congress (except where issues of gender are "
14871 "involved), she had been particularly deferential in the context of "
14872 "intellectual property protections. She and her daughter (an excellent and "
14873 "well-known intellectual property scholar) were cut from the same "
14874 "intellectual property cloth. We expected she would agree with the writings "
14875 "of her daughter: that Congress had the power in this context to do as it "
14876 "wished, even if what Congress wished made little sense."
14879 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14880 #: freeculture.xml:11323
14882 "Close behind Justice Ginsburg were two justices whom we also viewed as "
14883 "unlikely allies, though possible surprises. Justice Souter strongly favored "
14884 "deference to Congress, as did Justice Breyer. But both were also very "
14885 "sensitive to free speech concerns. And as we strongly believed, there was a "
14886 "very important free speech argument against these retrospective extensions."
14889 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14890 #: freeculture.xml:11331
14892 "The only vote we could be confident about was that of Justice "
14893 "Stevens. History will record Justice Stevens as one of the greatest judges "
14894 "on this Court. His votes are consistently eclectic, which just means that no "
14895 "simple ideology explains where he will stand. But he had consistently argued "
14896 "for limits in the context of intellectual property generally. We were fairly "
14897 "confident he would recognize limits here."
14900 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14901 #: freeculture.xml:11339
14903 "This analysis of \"the Rest\" showed most clearly where our focus had to be: "
14904 "on the Conservatives. To win this case, we had to crack open these five and "
14905 "get at least a majority to go our way. Thus, the single overriding argument "
14906 "that animated our claim rested on the Conservatives' most important "
14907 "jurisprudential innovation—the argument that Judge Sentelle had relied "
14908 "upon in the Court of Appeals, that Congress's power must be interpreted so "
14909 "that its enumerated powers have limits."
14913 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14914 #: freeculture.xml:11349
14916 "This then was the core of our strategy—a strategy for which I am "
14917 "responsible. We would get the Court to see that just as with the "
14918 "<citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> case, under the government's argument here, "
14919 "Congress would always have unlimited power to extend existing terms. If "
14920 "anything was plain about Congress's power under the Progress Clause, it was "
14921 "that this power was supposed to be \"limited.\" Our aim would be to get the "
14922 "Court to reconcile <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> with "
14923 "<citetitle>Lopez</citetitle>: If Congress's power to regulate commerce was "
14924 "limited, then so, too, must Congress's power to regulate copyright be "
14928 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14929 #: freeculture.xml:11363
14931 "The argument on the government's side came down to this: Congress has done "
14932 "it before. It should be allowed to do it again. The government claimed that "
14933 "from the very beginning, Congress has been extending the term of existing "
14934 "copyrights. So, the government argued, the Court should not now say that "
14935 "practice is unconstitutional."
14938 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14939 #: freeculture.xml:11370
14941 "There was some truth to the government's claim, but not much. We certainly "
14942 "agreed that Congress had extended existing terms in and in 1909. And of "
14943 "course, in 1962, Congress began extending existing terms "
14944 "regularly—eleven times in forty years."
14948 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14949 #: freeculture.xml:11377
14951 "But this \"consistency\" should be kept in perspective. Congress extended "
14952 "existing terms once in the first hundred years of the Republic. It then "
14953 "extended existing terms once again in the next fifty. Those rare extensions "
14954 "are in contrast to the now regular practice of extending existing "
14955 "terms. Whatever restraint Congress had had in the past, that restraint was "
14956 "now gone. Congress was now in a cycle of extensions; there was no reason to "
14957 "expect that cycle would end. This Court had not hesitated to intervene where "
14958 "Congress was in a similar cycle of extension. There was no reason it "
14959 "couldn't intervene here. Oral argument was scheduled for the first week in "
14960 "October. I arrived in D.C. two weeks before the argument. During those two "
14961 "weeks, I was repeatedly \"mooted\" by lawyers who had volunteered to help in "
14962 "the case. Such \"moots\" are basically practice rounds, where wannabe "
14963 "justices fire questions at wannabe winners."
14966 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14967 #: freeculture.xml:11400
14969 "I was convinced that to win, I had to keep the Court focused on a single "
14970 "point: that if this extension is permitted, then there is no limit to the "
14971 "power to set terms. Going with the government would mean that terms would be "
14972 "effectively unlimited; going with us would give Congress a clear line to "
14973 "follow: Don't extend existing terms. The moots were an effective practice; I "
14974 "found ways to take every question back to this central idea."
14977 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14978 #: freeculture.xml:11411
14980 "One moot was before the lawyers at Jones Day. Don Ayer was the skeptic. He "
14981 "had served in the Reagan Justice Department with Solicitor General Charles "
14982 "Fried. He had argued many cases before the Supreme Court. And in his review "
14983 "of the moot, he let his concern speak: <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
14987 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14988 #: freeculture.xml:11418
14990 "\"I'm just afraid that unless they really see the harm, they won't be "
14991 "willing to upset this practice that the government says has been a "
14992 "consistent practice for two hundred years. You have to make them see the "
14993 "harm—passionately get them to see the harm. For if they don't see "
14994 "that, then we haven't any chance of winning.\""
14998 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14999 #: freeculture.xml:11426
15001 "He may have argued many cases before this Court, I thought, but he didn't "
15002 "understand its soul. As a clerk, I had seen the Justices do the right "
15003 "thing—not because of politics but because it was right. As a law "
15004 "professor, I had spent my life teaching my students that this Court does the "
15005 "right thing—not because of politics but because it is right. As I "
15006 "listened to Ayer's plea for passion in pressing politics, I understood his "
15007 "point, and I rejected it. Our argument was right. That was enough. Let the "
15008 "politicians learn to see that it was also good. The night before the "
15009 "argument, a line of people began to form in front of the Supreme Court. The "
15010 "case had become a focus of the press and of the movement to free "
15011 "culture. Hundreds stood in line for the chance to see the "
15012 "proceedings. Scores spent the night on the Supreme Court steps so that they "
15013 "would be assured a seat."
15016 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15017 #: freeculture.xml:11443
15019 "Not everyone has to wait in line. People who know the Justices can ask for "
15020 "seats they control. (I asked Justice Scalia's chambers for seats for my "
15021 "parents, for example.) Members of the Supreme Court bar can get a seat in a "
15022 "special section reserved for them. And senators and congressmen have a "
15023 "special place where they get to sit, too. And finally, of course, the press "
15024 "has a gallery, as do clerks working for the Justices on the Court. As we "
15025 "entered that morning, there was no place that was not taken. This was an "
15026 "argument about intellectual property law, yet the halls were filled. As I "
15027 "walked in to take my seat at the front of the Court, I saw my parents "
15028 "sitting on the left. As I sat down at the table, I saw Jack Valenti sitting "
15029 "in the special section ordinarily reserved for family of the Justices."
15032 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15033 #: freeculture.xml:11458
15035 "When the Chief Justice called me to begin my argument, I began where I "
15036 "intended to stay: on the question of the limits on Congress's power. This "
15037 "was a case about enumerated powers, I said, and whether those enumerated "
15038 "powers had any limit."
15041 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15042 #: freeculture.xml:11464
15044 "Justice O'Connor stopped me within one minute of my opening. The history "
15045 "was bothering her."
15048 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
15049 #: freeculture.xml:11469
15051 "justice o'connor: Congress has extended the term so often through the years, "
15052 "and if you are right, don't we run the risk of upsetting previous extensions "
15053 "of time? I mean, this seems to be a practice that began with the very first "
15057 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15058 #: freeculture.xml:11476
15060 "She was quite willing to concede \"that this flies directly in the face of "
15061 "what the framers had in mind.\" But my response again and again was to "
15062 "emphasize limits on Congress's power."
15066 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
15067 #: freeculture.xml:11482
15069 "mr. lessig: Well, if it flies in the face of what the framers had in mind, "
15070 "then the question is, is there a way of interpreting their words that gives "
15071 "effect to what they had in mind, and the answer is yes."
15074 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15075 #: freeculture.xml:11490
15077 "There were two points in this argument when I should have seen where the "
15078 "Court was going. The first was a question by Justice Kennedy, who observed,"
15081 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
15082 #: freeculture.xml:11496
15084 "justice kennedy: Well, I suppose implicit in the argument that the '76 act, "
15085 "too, should have been declared void, and that we might leave it alone "
15086 "because of the disruption, is that for all these years the act has impeded "
15087 "progress in science and the useful arts. I just don't see any empirical "
15088 "evidence for that."
15091 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15092 #: freeculture.xml:11504
15094 "Here follows my clear mistake. Like a professor correcting a student, I "
15098 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
15099 #: freeculture.xml:11510
15101 "mr. lessig: Justice, we are not making an empirical claim at all. Nothing "
15102 "in our Copyright Clause claim hangs upon the empirical assertion about "
15103 "impeding progress. Our only argument is this is a structural limit necessary "
15104 "to assure that what would be an effectively perpetual term not be permitted "
15105 "under the copyright laws."
15108 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15109 #: freeculture.xml:11519
15111 "That was a correct answer, but it wasn't the right answer. The right answer "
15112 "was instead that there was an obvious and profound harm. Any number of "
15113 "briefs had been written about it. He wanted to hear it. And here was the "
15114 "place Don Ayer's advice should have mattered. This was a softball; my answer "
15115 "was a swing and a miss."
15118 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15119 #: freeculture.xml:11526
15121 "The second came from the Chief, for whom the whole case had been "
15122 "crafted. For the Chief Justice had crafted the <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> "
15123 "ruling, and we hoped that he would see this case as its second cousin."
15127 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15128 #: freeculture.xml:11531
15130 "It was clear a second into his question that he wasn't at all sympathetic. "
15131 "To him, we were a bunch of anarchists. As he asked:"
15134 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
15135 #: freeculture.xml:11538
15137 "chief justice: Well, but you want more than that. You want the right to copy "
15138 "verbatim other people's books, don't you?"
15141 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
15142 #: freeculture.xml:11542
15144 "mr. lessig: We want the right to copy verbatim works that should be in the "
15145 "public domain and would be in the public domain but for a statute that "
15146 "cannot be justified under ordinary First Amendment analysis or under a "
15147 "proper reading of the limits built into the Copyright Clause."
15150 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15151 #: freeculture.xml:11551
15153 "Things went better for us when the government gave its argument; for now the "
15154 "Court picked up on the core of our claim. As Justice Scalia asked Solicitor "
15158 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
15159 #: freeculture.xml:11557
15161 "justice scalia: You say that the functional equivalent of an unlimited time "
15162 "would be a violation [of the Constitution], but that's precisely the "
15163 "argument that's being made by petitioners here, that a limited time which is "
15164 "extendable is the functional equivalent of an unlimited time."
15167 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15168 #: freeculture.xml:11565
15170 "When Olson was finished, it was my turn to give a closing rebuttal. Olson's "
15171 "flailing had revived my anger. But my anger still was directed to the "
15172 "academic, not the practical. The government was arguing as if this were the "
15173 "first case ever to consider limits on Congress's Copyright and Patent Clause "
15174 "power. Ever the professor and not the advocate, I closed by pointing out the "
15175 "long history of the Court imposing limits on Congress's power in the name of "
15176 "the Copyright and Patent Clause— indeed, the very first case striking "
15177 "a law of Congress as exceeding a specific enumerated power was based upon "
15178 "the Copyright and Patent Clause. All true. But it wasn't going to move the "
15179 "Court to my side."
15183 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15184 #: freeculture.xml:11578
15186 "As I left the court that day, I knew there were a hundred points I wished I "
15187 "could remake. There were a hundred questions I wished I had answered "
15188 "differently. But one way of thinking about this case left me optimistic."
15191 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15192 #: freeculture.xml:11586
15194 "The government had been asked over and over again, what is the limit? Over "
15195 "and over again, it had answered there is no limit. This was precisely the "
15196 "answer I wanted the Court to hear. For I could not imagine how the Court "
15197 "could understand that the government believed Congress's power was unlimited "
15198 "under the terms of the Copyright Clause, and sustain the government's "
15199 "argument. The solicitor general had made my argument for me. No matter how "
15200 "often I tried, I could not understand how the Court could find that "
15201 "Congress's power under the Commerce Clause was limited, but under the "
15202 "Copyright Clause, unlimited. In those rare moments when I let myself believe "
15203 "that we may have prevailed, it was because I felt this Court—in "
15204 "particular, the Conservatives—would feel itself constrained by the "
15205 "rule of law that it had established elsewhere."
15208 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15209 #: freeculture.xml:11601
15211 "The morning of January 15, 2003, I was five minutes late to the office and "
15212 "missed the 7:00 A.M. call from the Supreme Court clerk. Listening to the "
15213 "message, I could tell in an instant that she had bad news to report.The "
15214 "Supreme Court had affirmed the decision of the Court of Appeals. Seven "
15215 "justices had voted in the majority. There were two dissents."
15218 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15219 #: freeculture.xml:11608
15221 "A few seconds later, the opinions arrived by e-mail. I took the phone off "
15222 "the hook, posted an announcement to our blog, and sat down to see where I "
15223 "had been wrong in my reasoning."
15226 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15227 #: freeculture.xml:11613
15229 "My <emphasis>reasoning</emphasis>. Here was a case that pitted all the money "
15230 "in the world against <emphasis>reasoning</emphasis>. And here was the last "
15231 "naïve law professor, scouring the pages, looking for reasoning."
15234 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15235 #: freeculture.xml:11619
15237 "I first scoured the opinion, looking for how the Court would distinguish the "
15238 "principle in this case from the principle in "
15239 "<citetitle>Lopez</citetitle>. The argument was nowhere to be found. The case "
15240 "was not even cited. The argument that was the core argument of our case did "
15241 "not even appear in the Court's opinion."
15245 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15246 #: freeculture.xml:11628
15248 "Justice Ginsburg simply ignored the enumerated powers argument. Consistent "
15249 "with her view that Congress's power was not limited generally, she had found "
15250 "Congress's power not limited here."
15253 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15254 #: freeculture.xml:11633
15256 "Her opinion was perfectly reasonable—for her, and for Justice "
15257 "Souter. Neither believes in <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle>. It would be too "
15258 "much to expect them to write an opinion that recognized, much less "
15259 "explained, the doctrine they had worked so hard to defeat."
15262 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15263 #: freeculture.xml:11639
15265 "But as I realized what had happened, I couldn't quite believe what I was "
15266 "reading. I had said there was no way this Court could reconcile limited "
15267 "powers with the Commerce Clause and unlimited powers with the Progress "
15268 "Clause. It had never even occurred to me that they could reconcile the two "
15269 "simply <emphasis>by not addressing the argument</emphasis>. There was no "
15270 "inconsistency because they would not talk about the two together. There was "
15271 "therefore no principle that followed from the <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> "
15272 "case: In that context, Congress's power would be limited, but in this "
15273 "context it would not."
15276 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15277 #: freeculture.xml:11650
15279 "Yet by what right did they get to choose which of the framers' values they "
15280 "would respect? By what right did they—the silent five—get to "
15281 "select the part of the Constitution they would enforce based on the values "
15282 "they thought important? We were right back to the argument that I said I "
15283 "hated at the start: I had failed to convince them that the issue here was "
15284 "important, and I had failed to recognize that however much I might hate a "
15285 "system in which the Court gets to pick the constitutional values that it "
15286 "will respect, that is the system we have."
15289 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15290 #: freeculture.xml:11662
15292 "Justices Breyer and Stevens wrote very strong dissents. Stevens's opinion "
15293 "was crafted internal to the law: He argued that the tradition of "
15294 "intellectual property law should not support this unjustified extension of "
15295 "terms. He based his argument on a parallel analysis that had governed in the "
15296 "context of patents (so had we). But the rest of the Court discounted the "
15297 "parallel—without explaining how the very same words in the Progress "
15298 "Clause could come to mean totally different things depending upon whether "
15299 "the words were about patents or copyrights. The Court let Justice Stevens's "
15300 "charge go unanswered."
15304 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15305 #: freeculture.xml:11675
15307 "Justice Breyer's opinion, perhaps the best opinion he has ever written, was "
15308 "external to the Constitution. He argued that the term of copyrights has "
15309 "become so long as to be effectively unlimited. We had said that under the "
15310 "current term, a copyright gave an author 99.8 percent of the value of a "
15311 "perpetual term. Breyer said we were wrong, that the actual number was "
15312 "99.9997 percent of a perpetual term. Either way, the point was clear: If the "
15313 "Constitution said a term had to be \"limited,\" and the existing term was so "
15314 "long as to be effectively unlimited, then it was unconstitutional."
15317 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15318 #: freeculture.xml:11686
15320 "These two justices understood all the arguments we had made. But because "
15321 "neither believed in the <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> case, neither was "
15322 "willing to push it as a reason to reject this extension. The case was "
15323 "decided without anyone having addressed the argument that we had carried "
15324 "from Judge Sentelle. It was <citetitle>Hamlet</citetitle> without the "
15328 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15329 #: freeculture.xml:11693
15331 "Defeat brings depression. They say it is a sign of health when depression "
15332 "gives way to anger. My anger came quickly, but it didn't cure the "
15333 "depression. This anger was of two sorts."
15336 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15337 #: freeculture.xml:11698
15339 "It was first anger with the five \"Conservatives.\" It would have been one "
15340 "thing for them to have explained why the principle of "
15341 "<citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> didn't apply in this case. That wouldn't have "
15342 "been a very convincing argument, I don't believe, having read it made by "
15343 "others, and having tried to make it myself. But it at least would have been "
15344 "an act of integrity. These justices in particular have repeatedly said that "
15345 "the proper mode of interpreting the Constitution is \"originalism\"—to "
15346 "first understand the framers' text, interpreted in their context, in light "
15347 "of the structure of the Constitution. That method had produced "
15348 "<citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> and many other \"originalist\" rulings. Where "
15349 "was their \"originalism\" now?"
15353 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15354 #: freeculture.xml:11711
15356 "Here, they had joined an opinion that never once tried to explain what the "
15357 "framers had meant by crafting the Progress Clause as they did; they joined "
15358 "an opinion that never once tried to explain how the structure of that clause "
15359 "would affect the interpretation of Congress's power. And they joined an "
15360 "opinion that didn't even try to explain why this grant of power could be "
15361 "unlimited, whereas the Commerce Clause would be limited. In short, they had "
15362 "joined an opinion that did not apply to, and was inconsistent with, their "
15363 "own method for interpreting the Constitution. This opinion may well have "
15364 "yielded a result that they liked. It did not produce a reason that was "
15365 "consistent with their own principles."
15368 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15369 #: freeculture.xml:11726
15371 "My anger with the Conservatives quickly yielded to anger with myself. For I "
15372 "had let a view of the law that I liked interfere with a view of the law as "
15376 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15377 #: freeculture.xml:11733
15379 "Most lawyers, and most law professors, have little patience for idealism "
15380 "about courts in general and this Supreme Court in particular. Most have a "
15381 "much more pragmatic view. When Don Ayer said that this case would be won "
15382 "based on whether I could convince the Justices that the framers' values were "
15383 "important, I fought the idea, because I didn't want to believe that that is "
15384 "how this Court decides. I insisted on arguing this case as if it were a "
15385 "simple application of a set of principles. I had an argument that followed "
15386 "in logic. I didn't need to waste my time showing it should also follow in "
15391 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15392 #: freeculture.xml:11744
15394 "As I read back over the transcript from that argument in October, I can see "
15395 "a hundred places where the answers could have taken the conversation in "
15396 "different directions, where the truth about the harm that this unchecked "
15397 "power will cause could have been made clear to this Court. Justice Kennedy "
15398 "in good faith wanted to be shown. I, idiotically, corrected his "
15399 "question. Justice Souter in good faith wanted to be shown the First "
15400 "Amendment harms. I, like a math teacher, reframed the question to make the "
15401 "logical point. I had shown them how they could strike this law of Congress "
15402 "if they wanted to. There were a hundred places where I could have helped "
15403 "them want to, yet my stubbornness, my refusal to give in, stopped me. I have "
15404 "stood before hundreds of audiences trying to persuade; I have used passion "
15405 "in that effort to persuade; but I refused to stand before this audience and "
15406 "try to persuade with the passion I had used elsewhere. It was not the basis "
15407 "on which a court should decide the issue."
15410 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15411 #: freeculture.xml:11764
15413 "Would it have been different if I had argued it differently? Would it have "
15414 "been different if Don Ayer had argued it? Or Charles Fried? Or Kathleen "
15415 "Sullivan? <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
15418 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15419 #: freeculture.xml:11770
15421 "My friends huddled around me to insist it would not. The Court was not "
15422 "ready, my friends insisted. This was a loss that was destined. It would take "
15423 "a great deal more to show our society why our framers were right. And when "
15424 "we do that, we will be able to show that Court."
15427 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15428 #: freeculture.xml:11776
15430 "Maybe, but I doubt it. These Justices have no financial interest in doing "
15431 "anything except the right thing. They are not lobbied. They have little "
15432 "reason to resist doing right. I can't help but think that if I had stepped "
15433 "down from this pretty picture of dispassionate justice, I could have "
15437 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15438 #: freeculture.xml:11783
15440 "And even if I couldn't, then that doesn't excuse what happened in "
15441 "January. For at the start of this case, one of America's leading "
15442 "intellectual property professors stated publicly that my bringing this case "
15443 "was a mistake. \"The Court is not ready,\" Peter Jaszi said; this issue "
15444 "should not be raised until it is. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
15449 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15450 #: freeculture.xml:11791
15452 "After the argument and after the decision, Peter said to me, and publicly, "
15453 "that he was wrong. But if indeed that Court could not have been persuaded, "
15454 "then that is all the evidence that's needed to know that here again Peter "
15455 "was right. Either I was not ready to argue this case in a way that would do "
15456 "some good or they were not ready to hear this case in a way that would do "
15457 "some good. Either way, the decision to bring this case—a decision I "
15458 "had made four years before—was wrong. While the reaction to the Sonny "
15459 "Bono Act itself was almost unanimously negative, the reaction to the Court's "
15460 "decision was mixed. No one, at least in the press, tried to say that "
15461 "extending the term of copyright was a good idea. We had won that battle over "
15462 "ideas. Where the decision was praised, it was praised by papers that had "
15463 "been skeptical of the Court's activism in other cases. Deference was a good "
15464 "thing, even if it left standing a silly law. But where the decision was "
15465 "attacked, it was attacked because it left standing a silly and harmful "
15466 "law. <citetitle>The New York Times</citetitle> wrote in its editorial,"
15469 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
15470 #: freeculture.xml:11812
15472 "In effect, the Supreme Court's decision makes it likely that we are seeing "
15473 "the beginning of the end of public domain and the birth of copyright "
15474 "perpetuity. The public domain has been a grand experiment, one that should "
15475 "not be allowed to die. The ability to draw freely on the entire creative "
15476 "output of humanity is one of the reasons we live in a time of such fruitful "
15477 "creative ferment."
15480 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><figure><indexterm><primary>
15481 #: freeculture.xml:11826 freeculture.xml:11831
15482 msgid "Bolling, Ruben"
15485 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15486 #: freeculture.xml:11821
15488 "The best responses were in the cartoons. There was a gaggle of hilarious "
15489 "images—of Mickey in jail and the like. The best, from my view of the "
15490 "case, was Ruben Bolling's, reproduced on the next page (<xref "
15491 "linkend=\"fig-18\"/>). The \"powerful and wealthy\" line is a bit "
15492 "unfair. But the punch in the face felt exactly like that. <placeholder "
15493 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
15496 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><figure><title>
15497 #: freeculture.xml:11829
15498 msgid "Tom the Dancing Bug cartoon"
15501 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><figure>
15502 #: freeculture.xml:11830
15504 "<graphic fileref=\"images/18.png\"></graphic> <placeholder "
15505 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
15508 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15509 #: freeculture.xml:11834
15511 "The image that will always stick in my head is that evoked by the quote from "
15512 "<citetitle>The New York Times</citetitle>. That \"grand experiment\" we call "
15513 "the \"public domain\" is over? When I can make light of it, I think, "
15514 "\"Honey, I shrunk the Constitution.\" But I can rarely make light of it. We "
15515 "had in our Constitution a commitment to free culture. In the case that I "
15516 "fathered, the Supreme Court effectively renounced that commitment. A better "
15517 "lawyer would have made them see differently."
15520 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
15521 #: freeculture.xml:11845
15522 msgid "CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Eldred II"
15525 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15526 #: freeculture.xml:11847
15528 "The day <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> was decided, fate would have it that I "
15529 "was to travel to Washington, D.C. (The day the rehearing petition in "
15530 "<citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> was denied—meaning the case was really "
15531 "finally over—fate would have it that I was giving a speech to "
15532 "technologists at Disney World.) This was a particularly long flight to my "
15533 "least favorite city. The drive into the city from Dulles was delayed because "
15534 "of traffic, so I opened up my computer and wrote an op-ed piece."
15537 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15538 #: freeculture.xml:11857
15540 "It was an act of contrition. During the whole of the flight from San "
15541 "Francisco to Washington, I had heard over and over again in my head the same "
15542 "advice from Don Ayer: You need to make them see why it is important. And "
15543 "alternating with that command was the question of Justice Kennedy: \"For all "
15544 "these years the act has impeded progress in science and the useful arts. I "
15545 "just don't see any empirical evidence for that.\" And so, having failed in "
15546 "the argument of constitutional principle, finally, I turned to an argument "
15551 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15552 #: freeculture.xml:11867
15554 "<citetitle>The New York Times</citetitle> published the piece. In it, I "
15555 "proposed a simple fix: Fifty years after a work has been published, the "
15556 "copyright owner would be required to register the work and pay a small "
15557 "fee. If he paid the fee, he got the benefit of the full term of "
15558 "copyright. If he did not, the work passed into the public domain."
15561 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15562 #: freeculture.xml:11875
15564 "We called this the Eldred Act, but that was just to give it a name. Eric "
15565 "Eldred was kind enough to let his name be used once again, but as he said "
15566 "early on, it won't get passed unless it has another name."
15569 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15570 #: freeculture.xml:11880
15572 "Or another two names. For depending upon your perspective, this is either "
15573 "the \"Public Domain Enhancement Act\" or the \"Copyright Term Deregulation "
15574 "Act.\" Either way, the essence of the idea is clear and obvious: Remove "
15575 "copyright where it is doing nothing except blocking access and the spread of "
15576 "knowledge. Leave it for as long as Congress allows for those works where its "
15577 "worth is at least $1. But for everything else, let the content go."
15580 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15581 #: freeculture.xml:11888 freeculture.xml:12088
15582 msgid "Forbes, Steve"
15585 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15586 #: freeculture.xml:11890
15588 "The reaction to this idea was amazingly strong. Steve Forbes endorsed it in "
15589 "an editorial. I received an avalanche of e-mail and letters expressing "
15590 "support. When you focus the issue on lost creativity, people can see the "
15591 "copyright system makes no sense. As a good Republican might say, here "
15592 "government regulation is simply getting in the way of innovation and "
15593 "creativity. And as a good Democrat might say, here the government is "
15594 "blocking access and the spread of knowledge for no good reason. Indeed, "
15595 "there is no real difference between Democrats and Republicans on this "
15596 "issue. Anyone can recognize the stupid harm of the present system."
15599 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15600 #: freeculture.xml:11902
15602 "Indeed, many recognized the obvious benefit of the registration "
15603 "requirement. For one of the hardest things about the current system for "
15604 "people who want to license content is that there is no obvious place to look "
15605 "for the current copyright owners. Since registration is not required, since "
15606 "marking content is not required, since no formality at all is required, it "
15607 "is often impossibly hard to locate copyright owners to ask permission to use "
15608 "or license their work. This system would lower these costs, by establishing "
15609 "at least one registry where copyright owners could be identified."
15612 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15613 #: freeculture.xml:11912
15614 msgid "Berlin Act (1908)"
15617 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15618 #: freeculture.xml:11913 freeculture.xml:11953
15619 msgid "Berne Convention (1908)"
15623 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
15624 #: freeculture.xml:11921
15626 "Until the 1908 Berlin Act of the Berne Convention, national copyright "
15627 "legislation sometimes made protection depend upon compliance with "
15628 "formalities such as registration, deposit, and affixation of notice of the "
15629 "author's claim of copyright. However, starting with the 1908 act, every text "
15630 "of the Convention has provided that \"the enjoyment and the exercise\" of "
15631 "rights guaranteed by the Convention \"shall not be subject to any "
15632 "formality.\" The prohibition against formalities is presently embodied in "
15633 "Article 5(2) of the Paris Text of the Berne Convention. Many countries "
15634 "continue to impose some form of deposit or registration requirement, albeit "
15635 "not as a condition of copyright. French law, for example, requires the "
15636 "deposit of copies of works in national repositories, principally the "
15637 "National Museum. Copies of books published in the United Kingdom must be "
15638 "deposited in the British Library. The German Copyright Act provides for a "
15639 "Registrar of Authors where the author's true name can be filed in the case "
15640 "of anonymous or pseudonymous works. Paul Goldstein, <citetitle>International "
15641 "Intellectual Property Law, Cases and Materials</citetitle> (New York: "
15642 "Foundation Press, 2001), 153–54."
15645 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15646 #: freeculture.xml:11916
15648 "As I described in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
15649 "linkend=\"property-i\"/>, formalities in copyright law were removed in 1976, "
15650 "when Congress followed the Europeans by abandoning any formal requirement "
15651 "before a copyright is granted.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The "
15652 "Europeans are said to view copyright as a \"natural right.\" Natural rights "
15653 "don't need forms to exist. Traditions, like the Anglo-American tradition "
15654 "that required copyright owners to follow form if their rights were to be "
15655 "protected, did not, the Europeans thought, properly respect the dignity of "
15656 "the author. My right as a creator turns on my creativity, not upon the "
15657 "special favor of the government."
15660 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15661 #: freeculture.xml:11947
15663 "That's great rhetoric. It sounds wonderfully romantic. But it is absurd "
15664 "copyright policy. It is absurd especially for authors, because a world "
15665 "without formalities harms the creator. The ability to spread \"Walt Disney "
15666 "creativity\" is destroyed when there is no simple way to know what's "
15667 "protected and what's not."
15670 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15671 #: freeculture.xml:11955
15673 "The fight against formalities achieved its first real victory in Berlin in "
15674 "1908. International copyright lawyers amended the Berne Convention in 1908, "
15675 "to require copyright terms of life plus fifty years, as well as the "
15676 "abolition of copyright formalities. The formalities were hated because the "
15677 "stories of inadvertent loss were increasingly common. It was as if a Charles "
15678 "Dickens character ran all copyright offices, and the failure to dot an "
15679 "<citetitle>i</citetitle> or cross a <citetitle>t</citetitle> resulted in the "
15680 "loss of widows' only income."
15683 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15684 #: freeculture.xml:11965
15686 "These complaints were real and sensible. And the strictness of the "
15687 "formalities, especially in the United States, was absurd. The law should "
15688 "always have ways of forgiving innocent mistakes. There is no reason "
15689 "copyright law couldn't, as well. Rather than abandoning formalities totally, "
15690 "the response in Berlin should have been to embrace a more equitable system "
15694 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15695 #: freeculture.xml:11973
15697 "Even that would have been resisted, however, because registration in the "
15698 "nineteenth and twentieth centuries was still expensive. It was also a "
15699 "hassle. The abolishment of formalities promised not only to save the "
15700 "starving widows, but also to lighten an unnecessary regulatory burden "
15701 "imposed upon creators."
15705 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15706 #: freeculture.xml:11981
15708 "In addition to the practical complaint of authors in 1908, there was a moral "
15709 "claim as well. There was no reason that creative property should be a "
15710 "second-class form of property. If a carpenter builds a table, his rights "
15711 "over the table don't depend upon filing a form with the government. He has "
15712 "a property right over the table \"naturally,\" and he can assert that right "
15713 "against anyone who would steal the table, whether or not he has informed the "
15714 "government of his ownership of the table."
15717 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15718 #: freeculture.xml:11993
15720 "This argument is correct, but its implications are misleading. For the "
15721 "argument in favor of formalities does not depend upon creative property "
15722 "being second-class property. The argument in favor of formalities turns upon "
15723 "the special problems that creative property presents. The law of "
15724 "formalities responds to the special physics of creative property, to assure "
15725 "that it can be efficiently and fairly spread."
15728 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15729 #: freeculture.xml:12002
15731 "No one thinks, for example, that land is second-class property just because "
15732 "you have to register a deed with a court if your sale of land is to be "
15733 "effective. And few would think a car is second-class property just because "
15734 "you must register the car with the state and tag it with a license. In both "
15735 "of those cases, everyone sees that there is an important reason to secure "
15736 "registration—both because it makes the markets more efficient and "
15737 "because it better secures the rights of the owner. Without a registration "
15738 "system for land, landowners would perpetually have to guard their "
15739 "property. With registration, they can simply point the police to a "
15740 "deed. Without a registration system for cars, auto theft would be much "
15741 "easier. With a registration system, the thief has a high burden to sell a "
15742 "stolen car. A slight burden is placed on the property owner, but those "
15743 "burdens produce a much better system of protection for property generally."
15746 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15747 #: freeculture.xml:12018
15749 "It is similarly special physics that makes formalities important in "
15750 "copyright law. Unlike a carpenter's table, there's nothing in nature that "
15751 "makes it relatively obvious who might own a particular bit of creative "
15752 "property. A recording of Lyle Lovett's latest album can exist in a billion "
15753 "places without anything necessarily linking it back to a particular "
15754 "owner. And like a car, there's no way to buy and sell creative property with "
15755 "confidence unless there is some simple way to authenticate who is the author "
15756 "and what rights he has. Simple transactions are destroyed in a world without "
15757 "formalities. Complex, expensive, <emphasis>lawyer</emphasis> transactions "
15758 "take their place. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
15761 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15762 #: freeculture.xml:12033
15764 "This was the understanding of the problem with the Sonny Bono Act that we "
15765 "tried to demonstrate to the Court. This was the part it didn't \"get.\" "
15766 "Because we live in a system without formalities, there is no way easily to "
15767 "build upon or use culture from our past. If copyright terms were, as Justice "
15768 "Story said they would be, \"short,\" then this wouldn't matter much. For "
15769 "fourteen years, under the framers' system, a work would be presumptively "
15770 "controlled. After fourteen years, it would be presumptively uncontrolled."
15773 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15774 #: freeculture.xml:12043
15776 "But now that copyrights can be just about a century long, the inability to "
15777 "know what is protected and what is not protected becomes a huge and obvious "
15778 "burden on the creative process. If the only way a library can offer an "
15779 "Internet exhibit about the New Deal is to hire a lawyer to clear the rights "
15780 "to every image and sound, then the copyright system is burdening creativity "
15781 "in a way that has never been seen before <emphasis>because there are no "
15782 "formalities</emphasis>."
15785 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15786 #: freeculture.xml:12052
15788 "The Eldred Act was designed to respond to exactly this problem. If it is "
15789 "worth $1 to you, then register your work and you can get the longer "
15790 "term. Others will know how to contact you and, therefore, how to get your "
15791 "permission if they want to use your work. And you will get the benefit of an "
15792 "extended copyright term."
15795 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15796 #: freeculture.xml:12059
15798 "If it isn't worth it to you to register to get the benefit of an extended "
15799 "term, then it shouldn't be worth it for the government to defend your "
15800 "monopoly over that work either. The work should pass into the public domain "
15801 "where anyone can copy it, or build archives with it, or create a movie based "
15802 "on it. It should become free if it is not worth $1 to you."
15805 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15806 #: freeculture.xml:12066
15808 "Some worry about the burden on authors. Won't the burden of registering the "
15809 "work mean that the $1 is really misleading? Isn't the hassle worth more than "
15810 "$1? Isn't that the real problem with registration?"
15814 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15815 #: freeculture.xml:12072
15817 "It is. The hassle is terrible. The system that exists now is awful. I "
15818 "completely agree that the Copyright Office has done a terrible job (no doubt "
15819 "because they are terribly funded) in enabling simple and cheap "
15820 "registrations. Any real solution to the problem of formalities must address "
15821 "the real problem of <emphasis>governments</emphasis> standing at the core of "
15822 "any system of formalities. In this book, I offer such a solution. That "
15823 "solution essentially remakes the Copyright Office. For now, assume it was "
15824 "Amazon that ran the registration system. Assume it was one-click "
15825 "registration. The Eldred Act would propose a simple, one-click registration "
15826 "fifty years after a work was published. Based upon historical data, that "
15827 "system would move up to 98 percent of commercial work, commercial work that "
15828 "no longer had a commercial life, into the public domain within fifty "
15829 "years. What do you think?"
15832 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15833 #: freeculture.xml:12090
15835 "When Steve Forbes endorsed the idea, some in Washington began to pay "
15836 "attention. Many people contacted me pointing to representatives who might be "
15837 "willing to introduce the Eldred Act. And I had a few who directly suggested "
15838 "that they might be willing to take the first step."
15841 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
15842 #: freeculture.xml:12103
15843 msgid "Lofgren, Zoe"
15846 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15847 #: freeculture.xml:12096
15849 "One representative, Zoe Lofgren of California, went so far as to get the "
15850 "bill drafted. The draft solved any problem with international law. It "
15851 "imposed the simplest requirement upon copyright owners possible. In May "
15852 "2003, it looked as if the bill would be introduced. On May 16, I posted on "
15853 "the Eldred Act blog, \"we are close.\" There was a general reaction in the "
15854 "blog community that something good might happen here. <placeholder "
15855 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
15858 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15859 #: freeculture.xml:12106
15861 "But at this stage, the lobbyists began to intervene. Jack Valenti and the "
15862 "MPAA general counsel came to the congresswoman's office to give the view of "
15863 "the MPAA. Aided by his lawyer, as Valenti told me, Valenti informed the "
15864 "congresswoman that the MPAA would oppose the Eldred Act. The reasons are "
15865 "embarrassingly thin. More importantly, their thinness shows something clear "
15866 "about what this debate is really about."
15870 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15871 #: freeculture.xml:12114
15873 "The MPAA argued first that Congress had \"firmly rejected the central "
15874 "concept in the proposed bill\"—that copyrights be renewed. That was "
15875 "true, but irrelevant, as Congress's \"firm rejection\" had occurred long "
15876 "before the Internet made subsequent uses much more likely. Second, they "
15877 "argued that the proposal would harm poor copyright owners—apparently "
15878 "those who could not afford the $1 fee. Third, they argued that Congress had "
15879 "determined that extending a copyright term would encourage restoration "
15880 "work. Maybe in the case of the small percentage of work covered by copyright "
15881 "law that is still commercially valuable, but again this was irrelevant, as "
15882 "the proposal would not cut off the extended term unless the $1 fee was not "
15883 "paid. Fourth, the MPAA argued that the bill would impose \"enormous\" costs, "
15884 "since a registration system is not free. True enough, but those costs are "
15885 "certainly less than the costs of clearing the rights for a copyright whose "
15886 "owner is not known. Fifth, they worried about the risks if the copyright to "
15887 "a story underlying a film were to pass into the public domain. But what risk "
15888 "is that? If it is in the public domain, then the film is a valid derivative "
15892 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15893 #: freeculture.xml:12135
15895 "Finally, the MPAA argued that existing law enabled copyright owners to do "
15896 "this if they wanted. But the whole point is that there are thousands of "
15897 "copyright owners who don't even know they have a copyright to give. Whether "
15898 "they are free to give away their copyright or not—a controversial "
15899 "claim in any case—unless they know about a copyright, they're not "
15903 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15904 #: freeculture.xml:12143
15906 "At the beginning of this book, I told two stories about the law reacting to "
15907 "changes in technology. In the one, common sense prevailed. In the other, "
15908 "common sense was delayed. The difference between the two stories was the "
15909 "power of the opposition—the power of the side that fought to defend "
15910 "the status quo. In both cases, a new technology threatened old "
15911 "interests. But in only one case did those interest's have the power to "
15912 "protect themselves against this new competitive threat."
15915 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15916 #: freeculture.xml:12153
15918 "I used these two cases as a way to frame the war that this book has been "
15919 "about. For here, too, a new technology is forcing the law to react. And "
15920 "here, too, we should ask, is the law following or resisting common sense? If "
15921 "common sense supports the law, what explains this common sense?"
15925 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15926 #: freeculture.xml:12162
15928 "When the issue is piracy, it is right for the law to back the copyright "
15929 "owners. The commercial piracy that I described is wrong and harmful, and the "
15930 "law should work to eliminate it. When the issue is p2p sharing, it is easy "
15931 "to understand why the law backs the owners still: Much of this sharing is "
15932 "wrong, even if much is harmless. When the issue is copyright terms for the "
15933 "Mickey Mouses of the world, it is possible still to understand why the law "
15934 "favors Hollywood: Most people don't recognize the reasons for limiting "
15935 "copyright terms; it is thus still possible to see good faith within the "
15939 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
15940 #: freeculture.xml:12181
15941 msgid "Kelly, Kevin"
15944 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15945 #: freeculture.xml:12173
15947 "But when the copyright owners oppose a proposal such as the Eldred Act, "
15948 "then, finally, there is an example that lays bare the naked selfinterest "
15949 "driving this war. This act would free an extraordinary range of content that "
15950 "is otherwise unused. It wouldn't interfere with any copyright owner's desire "
15951 "to exercise continued control over his content. It would simply liberate "
15952 "what Kevin Kelly calls the \"Dark Content\" that fills archives around the "
15953 "world. So when the warriors oppose a change like this, we should ask one "
15954 "simple question: <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
15957 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15958 #: freeculture.xml:12184
15959 msgid "What does this industry really want?"
15962 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15963 #: freeculture.xml:12187
15965 "With very little effort, the warriors could protect their content. So the "
15966 "effort to block something like the Eldred Act is not really about protecting "
15967 "<emphasis>their</emphasis> content. The effort to block the Eldred Act is an "
15968 "effort to assure that nothing more passes into the public domain. It is "
15969 "another step to assure that the public domain will never compete, that there "
15970 "will be no use of content that is not commercially controlled, and that "
15971 "there will be no commercial use of content that doesn't require "
15972 "<emphasis>their</emphasis> permission first."
15975 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15976 #: freeculture.xml:12198
15978 "The opposition to the Eldred Act reveals how extreme the other side is. The "
15979 "most powerful and sexy and well loved of lobbies really has as its aim not "
15980 "the protection of \"property\" but the rejection of a tradition. Their aim "
15981 "is not simply to protect what is theirs. <emphasis>Their aim is to assure "
15982 "that all there is is what is theirs</emphasis>."
15986 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15987 #: freeculture.xml:12206
15989 "It is not hard to understand why the warriors take this view. It is not hard "
15990 "to see why it would benefit them if the competition of the public domain "
15991 "tied to the Internet could somehow be quashed. Just as RCA feared the "
15992 "competition of FM, they fear the competition of a public domain connected to "
15993 "a public that now has the means to create with it and to share its own "
15997 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15998 #: freeculture.xml:12218
16000 "What is hard to understand is why the public takes this view. It is as if "
16001 "the law made airplanes trespassers. The MPAA stands with the Causbys and "
16002 "demands that their remote and useless property rights be respected, so that "
16003 "these remote and forgotten copyright holders might block the progress of "
16007 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16008 #: freeculture.xml:12225
16010 "All this seems to follow easily from this untroubled acceptance of the "
16011 "\"property\" in intellectual property. Common sense supports it, and so long "
16012 "as it does, the assaults will rain down upon the technologies of the "
16013 "Internet. The consequence will be an increasing \"permission society.\" The "
16014 "past can be cultivated only if you can identify the owner and gain "
16015 "permission to build upon his work. The future will be controlled by this "
16016 "dead (and often unfindable) hand of the past."
16019 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><title>
16020 #: freeculture.xml:12237
16024 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16025 #: freeculture.xml:12239
16027 "There are more than 35 million people with the AIDS virus "
16028 "worldwide. Twenty-five million of them live in sub-Saharan Africa. "
16029 "Seventeen million have already died. Seventeen million Africans is "
16030 "proportional percentage-wise to seven million Americans. More importantly, "
16031 "it is seventeen million Africans."
16034 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16035 #: freeculture.xml:12246
16037 "There is no cure for AIDS, but there are drugs to slow its progression. "
16038 "These antiretroviral therapies are still experimental, but they have already "
16039 "had a dramatic effect. In the United States, AIDS patients who regularly "
16040 "take a cocktail of these drugs increase their life expectancy by ten to "
16041 "twenty years. For some, the drugs make the disease almost invisible."
16045 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16046 #: freeculture.xml:12261
16048 "Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, \"Final Report: Integrating "
16049 "Intellectual Property Rights and Development Policy\" (London, 2002), "
16050 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
16051 "#55</ulink>. According to a World Health Organization press release issued 9 "
16052 "July 2002, only 230,000 of the 6 million who need drugs in the developing "
16053 "world receive them—and half of them are in Brazil."
16056 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16057 #: freeculture.xml:12254
16059 "These drugs are expensive. When they were first introduced in the United "
16060 "States, they cost between $10,000 and $15,000 per person per year. Today, "
16061 "some cost $25,000 per year. At these prices, of course, no African nation "
16062 "can afford the drugs for the vast majority of its population: $15,000 is "
16063 "thirty times the per capita gross national product of Zimbabwe. At these "
16064 "prices, the drugs are totally unavailable.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
16069 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16070 #: freeculture.xml:12272
16072 "These prices are not high because the ingredients of the drugs are "
16073 "expensive. These prices are high because the drugs are protected by "
16074 "patents. The drug companies that produced these life-saving mixes enjoy at "
16075 "least a twenty-year monopoly for their inventions. They use that monopoly "
16076 "power to extract the most they can from the market. That power is in turn "
16077 "used to keep the prices high."
16080 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16081 #: freeculture.xml:12280
16083 "There are many who are skeptical of patents, especially drug patents. I am "
16084 "not. Indeed, of all the areas of research that might be supported by "
16085 "patents, drug research is, in my view, the clearest case where patents are "
16086 "needed. The patent gives the drug company some assurance that if it is "
16087 "successful in inventing a new drug to treat a disease, it will be able to "
16088 "earn back its investment and more. This is socially an extremely valuable "
16089 "incentive. I am the last person who would argue that the law should abolish "
16090 "it, at least without other changes."
16093 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16094 #: freeculture.xml:12291
16096 "But it is one thing to support patents, even drug patents. It is another "
16097 "thing to determine how best to deal with a crisis. And as African leaders "
16098 "began to recognize the devastation that AIDS was bringing, they started "
16099 "looking for ways to import HIV treatments at costs significantly below the "
16103 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16104 #: freeculture.xml:12309 freeculture.xml:12744
16105 msgid "Braithwaite, John"
16108 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16109 #: freeculture.xml:12307
16111 "See Peter Drahos with John Braithwaite, <citetitle>Information Feudalism: "
16112 "Who Owns the Knowledge Economy?</citetitle> (New York: The New Press, 2003), "
16113 "37. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
16114 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
16117 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16118 #: freeculture.xml:12298
16120 "In 1997, South Africa tried one tack. It passed a law to allow the "
16121 "importation of patented medicines that had been produced or sold in another "
16122 "nation's market with the consent of the patent owner. For example, if the "
16123 "drug was sold in India, it could be imported into Africa from India. This is "
16124 "called \"parallel importation,\" and it is generally permitted under "
16125 "international trade law and is specifically permitted within the European "
16126 "Union.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
16130 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16131 #: freeculture.xml:12320
16133 "International Intellectual Property Institute (IIPI), <citetitle>Patent "
16134 "Protection and Access to HIV/AIDS Pharmaceuticals in Sub-Saharan Africa, a "
16135 "Report Prepared for the World Intellectual Property Organization</citetitle> "
16136 "(Washington, D.C., 2000), 14, available at <ulink "
16137 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #56</ulink>. For a firsthand "
16138 "account of the struggle over South Africa, see Hearing Before the "
16139 "Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources, House "
16140 "Committee on Government Reform, H. Rep., 1st sess., Ser. No. 106-126 (22 "
16141 "July 1999), 150–57 (statement of James Love)."
16145 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16146 #: freeculture.xml:12347
16148 "International Intellectual Property Institute (IIPI), <citetitle>Patent "
16149 "Protection and Access to HIV/AIDS Pharmaceuticals in Sub-Saharan Africa, a "
16150 "Report Prepared for the World Intellectual Property Organization</citetitle> "
16151 "(Washington, D.C., 2000), 15."
16154 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16155 #: freeculture.xml:12314
16157 "However, the United States government opposed the bill. Indeed, more than "
16158 "opposed. As the International Intellectual Property Association "
16159 "characterized it, \"The U.S. government pressured South Africa … not "
16160 "to permit compulsory licensing or parallel imports.\"<placeholder "
16161 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Through the Office of the United States Trade "
16162 "Representative, the government asked South Africa to change the "
16163 "law—and to add pressure to that request, in 1998, the USTR listed "
16164 "South Africa for possible trade sanctions. That same year, more than forty "
16165 "pharmaceutical companies began proceedings in the South African courts to "
16166 "challenge the government's actions. The United States was then joined by "
16167 "other governments from the EU. Their claim, and the claim of the "
16168 "pharmaceutical companies, was that South Africa was violating its "
16169 "obligations under international law by discriminating against a particular "
16170 "kind of patent— pharmaceutical patents. The demand of these "
16171 "governments, with the United States in the lead, was that South Africa "
16172 "respect these patents as it respects any other patent, regardless of any "
16173 "effect on the treatment of AIDS within South Africa.<placeholder "
16174 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
16177 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16178 #: freeculture.xml:12353
16180 "We should place the intervention by the United States in context. No doubt "
16181 "patents are not the most important reason that Africans don't have access to "
16182 "drugs. Poverty and the total absence of an effective health care "
16183 "infrastructure matter more. But whether patents are the most important "
16184 "reason or not, the price of drugs has an effect on their demand, and patents "
16185 "affect price. And so, whether massive or marginal, there was an effect from "
16186 "our government's intervention to stop the flow of medications into Africa."
16189 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16190 #: freeculture.xml:12363
16192 "By stopping the flow of HIV treatment into Africa, the United States "
16193 "government was not saving drugs for United States citizens. This is not "
16194 "like wheat (if they eat it, we can't); instead, the flow that the United "
16195 "States intervened to stop was, in effect, a flow of knowledge: information "
16196 "about how to take chemicals that exist within Africa, and turn those "
16197 "chemicals into drugs that would save 15 to 30 million lives."
16200 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16201 #: freeculture.xml:12371
16203 "Nor was the intervention by the United States going to protect the profits "
16204 "of United States drug companies—at least, not substantially. It was "
16205 "not as if these countries were in the position to buy the drugs for the "
16206 "prices the drug companies were charging. Again, the Africans are wildly too "
16207 "poor to afford these drugs at the offered prices. Stopping the parallel "
16208 "import of these drugs would not substantially increase the sales by "
16214 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16215 #: freeculture.xml:12386
16217 "See Sabin Russell, \"New Crusade to Lower AIDS Drug Costs: Africa's Needs at "
16218 "Odds with Firms' Profit Motive,\" <citetitle>San Francisco "
16219 "Chronicle</citetitle>, 24 May 1999, A1, available at <ulink "
16220 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #57</ulink> (\"compulsory "
16221 "licenses and gray markets pose a threat to the entire system of intellectual "
16222 "property protection\"); Robert Weissman, \"AIDS and Developing Countries: "
16223 "Democratizing Access to Essential Medicines,\" <citetitle>Foreign Policy in "
16224 "Focus</citetitle> 4:23 (August 1999), available at <ulink "
16225 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #58</ulink> (describing "
16226 "U.S. policy); John A. Harrelson, \"TRIPS, Pharmaceutical Patents, and the "
16227 "HIV/AIDS Crisis: Finding the Proper Balance Between Intellectual Property "
16228 "Rights and Compassion, a Synopsis,\" <citetitle>Widener Law Symposium "
16229 "Journal</citetitle> (Spring 2001): 175."
16232 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16233 #: freeculture.xml:12380
16235 "Instead, the argument in favor of restricting this flow of information, "
16236 "which was needed to save the lives of millions, was an argument about the "
16237 "sanctity of property.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> It was "
16238 "because \"intellectual property\" would be violated that these drugs should "
16239 "not flow into Africa. It was a principle about the importance of "
16240 "\"intellectual property\" that led these government actors to intervene "
16241 "against the South African response to AIDS."
16244 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16245 #: freeculture.xml:12407
16247 "Now just step back for a moment. There will be a time thirty years from now "
16248 "when our children look back at us and ask, how could we have let this "
16249 "happen? How could we allow a policy to be pursued whose direct cost would be "
16250 "to speed the death of 15 to 30 million Africans, and whose only real benefit "
16251 "would be to uphold the \"sanctity\" of an idea? What possible justification "
16252 "could there ever be for a policy that results in so many deaths? What "
16253 "exactly is the insanity that would allow so many to die for such an "
16257 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16258 #: freeculture.xml:12417
16260 "Some blame the drug companies. I don't. They are corporations. Their "
16261 "managers are ordered by law to make money for the corporation. They push a "
16262 "certain patent policy not because of ideals, but because it is the policy "
16263 "that makes them the most money. And it only makes them the most money "
16264 "because of a certain corruption within our political system— a "
16265 "corruption the drug companies are certainly not responsible for."
16268 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16269 #: freeculture.xml:12425
16271 "The corruption is our own politicians' failure of integrity. For the drug "
16272 "companies would love—they say, and I believe them—to sell their "
16273 "drugs as cheaply as they can to countries in Africa and elsewhere. There "
16274 "are issues they'd have to resolve to make sure the drugs didn't get back "
16275 "into the United States, but those are mere problems of technology. They "
16276 "could be overcome."
16280 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16281 #: freeculture.xml:12433
16283 "A different problem, however, could not be overcome. This is the fear of the "
16284 "grandstanding politician who would call the presidents of the drug companies "
16285 "before a Senate or House hearing, and ask, \"How is it you can sell this HIV "
16286 "drug in Africa for only $1 a pill, but the same drug would cost an American "
16287 "$1,500?\" Because there is no \"sound bite\" answer to that question, its "
16288 "effect would be to induce regulation of prices in America. The drug "
16289 "companies thus avoid this spiral by avoiding the first step. They reinforce "
16290 "the idea that property should be sacred. They adopt a rational strategy in "
16291 "an irrational context, with the unintended consequence that perhaps millions "
16292 "die. And that rational strategy thus becomes framed in terms of this "
16293 "ideal—the sanctity of an idea called \"intellectual property.\""
16296 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16297 #: freeculture.xml:12448
16299 "So when the common sense of your child confronts you, what will you say? "
16300 "When the common sense of a generation finally revolts against what we have "
16301 "done, how will we justify what we have done? What is the argument?"
16304 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16305 #: freeculture.xml:12454
16307 "A sensible patent policy could endorse and strongly support the patent "
16308 "system without having to reach everyone everywhere in exactly the same "
16309 "way. Just as a sensible copyright policy could endorse and strongly support "
16310 "a copyright system without having to regulate the spread of culture "
16311 "perfectly and forever, a sensible patent policy could endorse and strongly "
16312 "support a patent system without having to block the spread of drugs to a "
16313 "country not rich enough to afford market prices in any case. A sensible "
16314 "policy, in other words, could be a balanced policy. For most of our history, "
16315 "both copyright and patent policies were balanced in just this sense."
16319 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16320 #: freeculture.xml:12466
16322 "But we as a culture have lost this sense of balance. We have lost the "
16323 "critical eye that helps us see the difference between truth and extremism. "
16324 "A certain property fundamentalism, having no connection to our tradition, "
16325 "now reigns in this culture—bizarrely, and with consequences more grave "
16326 "to the spread of ideas and culture than almost any other single policy "
16327 "decision that we as a democracy will make. A simple idea blinds us, and "
16328 "under the cover of darkness, much happens that most of us would reject if "
16329 "any of us looked. So uncritically do we accept the idea of property in ideas "
16330 "that we don't even notice how monstrous it is to deny ideas to a people who "
16331 "are dying without them. So uncritically do we accept the idea of property in "
16332 "culture that we don't even question when the control of that property "
16333 "removes our ability, as a people, to develop our culture "
16334 "democratically. Blindness becomes our common sense. And the challenge for "
16335 "anyone who would reclaim the right to cultivate our culture is to find a way "
16336 "to make this common sense open its eyes."
16339 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16340 #: freeculture.xml:12486
16342 "So far, common sense sleeps. There is no revolt. Common sense does not yet "
16343 "see what there could be to revolt about. The extremism that now dominates "
16344 "this debate fits with ideas that seem natural, and that fit is reinforced by "
16345 "the RCAs of our day. They wage a frantic war to fight \"piracy,\" and "
16346 "devastate a culture for creativity. They defend the idea of \"creative "
16347 "property,\" while transforming real creators into modern-day "
16348 "sharecroppers. They are insulted by the idea that rights should be balanced, "
16349 "even though each of the major players in this content war was itself a "
16350 "beneficiary of a more balanced ideal. The hypocrisy reeks. Yet in a city "
16351 "like Washington, hypocrisy is not even noticed. Powerful lobbies, complex "
16352 "issues, and MTV attention spans produce the \"perfect storm\" for free "
16357 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16358 #: freeculture.xml:12503
16360 "Jonathan Krim, \"The Quiet War over Open-Source,\" <citetitle>Washington "
16361 "Post</citetitle>, August 2003, E1, available at <ulink "
16362 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #59</ulink>; William New, "
16363 "\"Global Group's Shift on `Open Source' Meeting Spurs Stir,\" "
16364 "<citetitle>National Journal's Technology Daily</citetitle>, 19 August 2003, "
16365 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #60</ulink>; "
16366 "William New, \"U.S. Official Opposes `Open Source' Talks at WIPO,\" "
16367 "<citetitle>National Journal's Technology Daily</citetitle>, 19 August 2003, "
16368 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #61</ulink>."
16371 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
16372 #: freeculture.xml:12531 freeculture.xml:13204
16373 msgid "academic journals"
16376 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
16377 #: freeculture.xml:12532 freeculture.xml:12622 freeculture.xml:13130
16381 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
16382 #: freeculture.xml:12533 freeculture.xml:13268
16383 msgid "PLoS (Public Library of Science)"
16386 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16387 #: freeculture.xml:12500
16389 "In August 2003, a fight broke out in the United States about a decision by "
16390 "the World Intellectual Property Organization to cancel a "
16391 "meeting.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> At the request of a wide "
16392 "range of interests, WIPO had decided to hold a meeting to discuss \"open and "
16393 "collaborative projects to create public goods.\" These are projects that "
16394 "have been successful in producing public goods without relying exclusively "
16395 "upon a proprietary use of intellectual property. Examples include the "
16396 "Internet and the World Wide Web, both of which were developed on the basis "
16397 "of protocols in the public domain. It included an emerging trend to support "
16398 "open academic journals, including the Public Library of Science project that "
16399 "I describe in the Afterword. It included a project to develop single "
16400 "nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), which are thought to have great "
16401 "significance in biomedical research. (That nonprofit project comprised a "
16402 "consortium of the Wellcome Trust and pharmaceutical and technological "
16403 "companies, including Amersham Biosciences, AstraZeneca, Aventis, Bayer, "
16404 "Bristol-Myers Squibb, Hoffmann-La Roche, Glaxo-SmithKline, IBM, Motorola, "
16405 "Novartis, Pfizer, and Searle.) It included the Global Positioning System, "
16406 "which Ronald Reagan set free in the early 1980s. And it included \"open "
16407 "source and free software.\" <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> "
16408 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
16412 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16413 #: freeculture.xml:12536
16415 "The aim of the meeting was to consider this wide range of projects from one "
16416 "common perspective: that none of these projects relied upon intellectual "
16417 "property extremism. Instead, in all of them, intellectual property was "
16418 "balanced by agreements to keep access open or to impose limitations on the "
16419 "way in which proprietary claims might be used."
16423 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16424 #: freeculture.xml:12544
16426 "I should disclose that I was one of the people who asked WIPO for the "
16430 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16431 #: freeculture.xml:12543
16433 "From the perspective of this book, then, the conference was "
16434 "ideal.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The projects within its "
16435 "scope included both commercial and noncommercial work. They primarily "
16436 "involved science, but from many perspectives. And WIPO was an ideal venue "
16437 "for this discussion, since WIPO is the preeminent international body dealing "
16438 "with intellectual property issues."
16442 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16443 #: freeculture.xml:12554
16445 "Indeed, I was once publicly scolded for not recognizing this fact about "
16446 "WIPO. In February 2003, I delivered a keynote address to a preparatory "
16447 "conference for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). At a "
16448 "press conference before the address, I was asked what I would say. I "
16449 "responded that I would be talking a little about the importance of balance "
16450 "in intellectual property for the development of an information society. The "
16451 "moderator for the event then promptly interrupted to inform me and the "
16452 "assembled reporters that no question about intellectual property would be "
16453 "discussed by WSIS, since those questions were the exclusive domain of "
16454 "WIPO. In the talk that I had prepared, I had actually made the issue of "
16455 "intellectual property relatively minor. But after this astonishing "
16456 "statement, I made intellectual property the sole focus of my talk. There was "
16457 "no way to talk about an \"Information Society\" unless one also talked about "
16458 "the range of information and culture that would be free. My talk did not "
16459 "make my immoderate moderator very happy. And she was no doubt correct that "
16460 "the scope of intellectual property protections was ordinarily the stuff of "
16461 "WIPO. But in my view, there couldn't be too much of a conversation about how "
16462 "much intellectual property is needed, since in my view, the very idea of "
16463 "balance in intellectual property had been lost."
16466 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16467 #: freeculture.xml:12578
16469 "So whether or not WSIS can discuss balance in intellectual property, I had "
16470 "thought it was taken for granted that WIPO could and should. And thus the "
16471 "meeting about \"open and collaborative projects to create public goods\" "
16472 "seemed perfectly appropriate within the WIPO agenda."
16475 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16476 #: freeculture.xml:12584
16478 "But there is one project within that list that is highly controversial, at "
16479 "least among lobbyists. That project is \"open source and free software.\" "
16480 "Microsoft in particular is wary of discussion of the subject. From its "
16481 "perspective, a conference to discuss open source and free software would be "
16482 "like a conference to discuss Apple's operating system. Both open source and "
16483 "free software compete with Microsoft's software. And internationally, many "
16484 "governments have begun to explore requirements that they use open source or "
16485 "free software, rather than \"proprietary software,\" for their own internal "
16490 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16491 #: freeculture.xml:12606
16493 "Microsoft's position about free and open source software is more "
16494 "sophisticated. As it has repeatedly asserted, it has no problem with \"open "
16495 "source\" software or software in the public domain. Microsoft's principal "
16496 "opposition is to \"free software\" licensed under a \"copyleft\" license, "
16497 "meaning a license that requires the licensee to adopt the same terms on any "
16498 "derivative work. See Bradford L. Smith, \"The Future of Software: Enabling "
16499 "the Marketplace to Decide,\" <citetitle>Government Policy Toward Open Source "
16500 "Software</citetitle> (Washington, D.C.: AEI-Brookings Joint Center for "
16501 "Regulatory Studies, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy "
16502 "Research, 2002), 69, available at <ulink "
16503 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #62</ulink>. See also Craig "
16504 "Mundie, Microsoft senior vice president, <citetitle>The Commercial Software "
16505 "Model</citetitle>, discussion at New York University Stern School of "
16506 "Business (3 May 2001), available at <ulink "
16507 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #63</ulink>."
16510 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
16511 #: freeculture.xml:12623
16512 msgid "\"copyleft\" licenses"
16515 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16516 #: freeculture.xml:12595
16518 "I don't mean to enter that debate here. It is important only to make clear "
16519 "that the distinction is not between commercial and noncommercial "
16520 "software. There are many important companies that depend fundamentally upon "
16521 "open source and free software, IBM being the most prominent. IBM is "
16522 "increasingly shifting its focus to the GNU/Linux operating system, the most "
16523 "famous bit of \"free software\"—and IBM is emphatically a commercial "
16524 "entity. Thus, to support \"open source and free software\" is not to oppose "
16525 "commercial entities. It is, instead, to support a mode of software "
16526 "development that is different from Microsoft's.<placeholder "
16527 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> "
16528 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
16529 "id=\"3\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"4\"/>"
16533 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16534 #: freeculture.xml:12628
16536 "More important for our purposes, to support \"open source and free "
16537 "software\" is not to oppose copyright. \"Open source and free software\" is "
16538 "not software in the public domain. Instead, like Microsoft's software, the "
16539 "copyright owners of free and open source software insist quite strongly that "
16540 "the terms of their software license be respected by adopters of free and "
16541 "open source software. The terms of that license are no doubt different from "
16542 "the terms of a proprietary software license. Free software licensed under "
16543 "the General Public License (GPL), for example, requires that the source code "
16544 "for the software be made available by anyone who modifies and redistributes "
16545 "the software. But that requirement is effective only if copyright governs "
16546 "software. If copyright did not govern software, then free software could not "
16547 "impose the same kind of requirements on its adopters. It thus depends upon "
16548 "copyright law just as Microsoft does."
16552 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16553 #: freeculture.xml:12654
16555 "Krim, \"The Quiet War over Open-Source,\" available at <ulink "
16556 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #64</ulink>."
16559 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
16560 #: freeculture.xml:12658
16561 msgid "Krim, Jonathan"
16564 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16565 #: freeculture.xml:12646
16567 "It is therefore understandable that as a proprietary software developer, "
16568 "Microsoft would oppose this WIPO meeting, and understandable that it would "
16569 "use its lobbyists to get the United States government to oppose it, as "
16570 "well. And indeed, that is just what was reported to have happened. According "
16571 "to Jonathan Krim of the <citetitle>Washington Post</citetitle>, Microsoft's "
16572 "lobbyists succeeded in getting the United States government to veto the "
16573 "meeting.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> And without U.S. backing, "
16574 "the meeting was canceled. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
16577 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16578 #: freeculture.xml:12661
16580 "I don't blame Microsoft for doing what it can to advance its own interests, "
16581 "consistent with the law. And lobbying governments is plainly consistent with "
16582 "the law. There was nothing surprising about its lobbying here, and nothing "
16583 "terribly surprising about the most powerful software producer in the United "
16584 "States having succeeded in its lobbying efforts."
16587 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16588 #: freeculture.xml:12669
16590 "What was surprising was the United States government's reason for opposing "
16591 "the meeting. Again, as reported by Krim, Lois Boland, acting director of "
16592 "international relations for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, explained "
16593 "that \"open-source software runs counter to the mission of WIPO, which is to "
16594 "promote intellectual-property rights.\" She is quoted as saying, \"To hold a "
16595 "meeting which has as its purpose to disclaim or waive such rights seems to "
16596 "us to be contrary to the goals of WIPO.\""
16599 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16600 #: freeculture.xml:12679
16601 msgid "These statements are astonishing on a number of levels."
16604 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16605 #: freeculture.xml:12683
16607 "First, they are just flat wrong. As I described, most open source and free "
16608 "software relies fundamentally upon the intellectual property right called "
16609 "\"copyright\". Without it, restrictions imposed by those licenses wouldn't "
16610 "work. Thus, to say it \"runs counter\" to the mission of promoting "
16611 "intellectual property rights reveals an extraordinary gap in "
16612 "understanding—the sort of mistake that is excusable in a first-year "
16613 "law student, but an embarrassment from a high government official dealing "
16614 "with intellectual property issues."
16617 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16618 #: freeculture.xml:12693
16620 "Second, who ever said that WIPO's exclusive aim was to \"promote\" "
16621 "intellectual property maximally? As I had been scolded at the preparatory "
16622 "conference of WSIS, WIPO is to consider not only how best to protect "
16623 "intellectual property, but also what the best balance of intellectual "
16624 "property is. As every economist and lawyer knows, the hard question in "
16625 "intellectual property law is to find that balance. But that there should be "
16626 "limits is, I had thought, uncontested. One wants to ask Ms. Boland, are "
16627 "generic drugs (drugs based on drugs whose patent has expired) contrary to "
16628 "the WIPO mission? Does the public domain weaken intellectual property? Would "
16629 "it have been better if the protocols of the Internet had been patented?"
16632 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16633 #: freeculture.xml:12706
16635 "Third, even if one believed that the purpose of WIPO was to maximize "
16636 "intellectual property rights, in our tradition, intellectual property rights "
16637 "are held by individuals and corporations. They get to decide what to do with "
16638 "those rights because, again, they are <emphasis>their</emphasis> rights. If "
16639 "they want to \"waive\" or \"disclaim\" their rights, that is, within our "
16640 "tradition, totally appropriate. When Bill Gates gives away more than $20 "
16641 "billion to do good in the world, that is not inconsistent with the "
16642 "objectives of the property system. That is, on the contrary, just what a "
16643 "property system is supposed to be about: giving individuals the right to "
16644 "decide what to do with <emphasis>their</emphasis> property. <placeholder "
16645 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
16649 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16650 #: freeculture.xml:12720
16652 "When Ms. Boland says that there is something wrong with a meeting \"which "
16653 "has as its purpose to disclaim or waive such rights,\" she's saying that "
16654 "WIPO has an interest in interfering with the choices of the individuals who "
16655 "own intellectual property rights. That somehow, WIPO's objective should be "
16656 "to stop an individual from \"waiving\" or \"disclaiming\" an intellectual "
16657 "property right. That the interest of WIPO is not just that intellectual "
16658 "property rights be maximized, but that they also should be exercised in the "
16659 "most extreme and restrictive way possible."
16662 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16663 #: freeculture.xml:12732
16665 "There is a history of just such a property system that is well known in the "
16666 "Anglo-American tradition. It is called \"feudalism.\" Under feudalism, not "
16667 "only was property held by a relatively small number of individuals and "
16668 "entities. And not only were the rights that ran with that property powerful "
16669 "and extensive. But the feudal system had a strong interest in assuring that "
16670 "property holders within that system not weaken feudalism by liberating "
16671 "people or property within their control to the free market. Feudalism "
16672 "depended upon maximum control and concentration. It fought any freedom that "
16673 "might interfere with that control."
16676 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16677 #: freeculture.xml:12749
16679 "See Drahos with Braithwaite, <citetitle>Information Feudalism</citetitle>, "
16680 "210–20. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
16683 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16684 #: freeculture.xml:12746
16686 "As Peter Drahos and John Braithwaite relate, this is precisely the choice we "
16687 "are now making about intellectual property.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
16688 "id=\"0\"/> We will have an information society. That much is certain. Our "
16689 "only choice now is whether that information society will be "
16690 "<emphasis>free</emphasis> or <emphasis>feudal</emphasis>. The trend is "
16691 "toward the feudal."
16694 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16695 #: freeculture.xml:12758
16697 "When this battle broke, I blogged it. A spirited debate within the comment "
16698 "section ensued. Ms. Boland had a number of supporters who tried to show why "
16699 "her comments made sense. But there was one comment that was particularly "
16700 "depressing for me. An anonymous poster wrote,"
16704 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para>
16705 #: freeculture.xml:12765
16707 "George, you misunderstand Lessig: He's only talking about the world as it "
16708 "should be (\"the goal of WIPO, and the goal of any government, should be to "
16709 "promote the right balance of intellectual property rights, not simply to "
16710 "promote intellectual property rights\"), not as it is. If we were talking "
16711 "about the world as it is, then of course Boland didn't say anything "
16712 "wrong. But in the world as Lessig would have it, then of course she "
16713 "did. Always pay attention to the distinction between Lessig's world and "
16717 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16718 #: freeculture.xml:12777
16720 "I missed the irony the first time I read it. I read it quickly and thought "
16721 "the poster was supporting the idea that seeking balance was what our "
16722 "government should be doing. (Of course, my criticism of Ms. Boland was not "
16723 "about whether she was seeking balance or not; my criticism was that her "
16724 "comments betrayed a first-year law student's mistake. I have no illusion "
16725 "about the extremism of our government, whether Republican or Democrat. My "
16726 "only illusion apparently is about whether our government should speak the "
16730 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16731 #: freeculture.xml:12787
16733 "Obviously, however, the poster was not supporting that idea. Instead, the "
16734 "poster was ridiculing the very idea that in the real world, the \"goal\" of "
16735 "a government should be \"to promote the right balance\" of intellectual "
16736 "property. That was obviously silly to him. And it obviously betrayed, he "
16737 "believed, my own silly utopianism. \"Typical for an academic,\" the poster "
16738 "might well have continued."
16741 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16742 #: freeculture.xml:12795
16744 "I understand criticism of academic utopianism. I think utopianism is silly, "
16745 "too, and I'd be the first to poke fun at the absurdly unrealistic ideals of "
16746 "academics throughout history (and not just in our own country's history)."
16749 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16750 #: freeculture.xml:12801
16752 "But when it has become silly to suppose that the role of our government "
16753 "should be to \"seek balance,\" then count me with the silly, for that means "
16754 "that this has become quite serious indeed. If it should be obvious to "
16755 "everyone that the government does not seek balance, that the government is "
16756 "simply the tool of the most powerful lobbyists, that the idea of holding the "
16757 "government to a different standard is absurd, that the idea of demanding of "
16758 "the government that it speak truth and not lies is just naïve, then who "
16759 "have we, the most powerful democracy in the world, become?"
16763 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16764 #: freeculture.xml:12812
16766 "It might be crazy to expect a high government official to speak the "
16767 "truth. It might be crazy to believe that government policy will be something "
16768 "more than the handmaiden of the most powerful interests. It might be crazy "
16769 "to argue that we should preserve a tradition that has been part of our "
16770 "tradition for most of our history—free culture."
16773 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
16774 #: freeculture.xml:12831
16775 msgid "Turner, Ted"
16778 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16779 #: freeculture.xml:12821
16781 "If this is crazy, then let there be more crazies. Soon. There are moments "
16782 "of hope in this struggle. And moments that surprise. When the FCC was "
16783 "considering relaxing ownership rules, which would thereby further increase "
16784 "the concentration in media ownership, an extraordinary bipartisan coalition "
16785 "formed to fight this change. For perhaps the first time in history, "
16786 "interests as diverse as the NRA, the ACLU, Moveon.org, William Safire, Ted "
16787 "Turner, and CodePink Women for Peace organized to oppose this change in FCC "
16788 "policy. An astonishing 700,000 letters were sent to the FCC, demanding more "
16789 "hearings and a different result. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> "
16790 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
16793 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16794 #: freeculture.xml:12835
16796 "This activism did not stop the FCC, but soon after, a broad coalition in the "
16797 "Senate voted to reverse the FCC decision. The hostile hearings leading up to "
16798 "that vote revealed just how powerful this movement had become. There was no "
16799 "substantial support for the FCC's decision, and there was broad and "
16800 "sustained support for fighting further concentration in the media."
16803 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16804 #: freeculture.xml:12843
16806 "But even this movement misses an important piece of the puzzle. Largeness "
16807 "as such is not bad. Freedom is not threatened just because some become very "
16808 "rich, or because there are only a handful of big players. The poor quality "
16809 "of Big Macs or Quarter Pounders does not mean that you can't get a good "
16810 "hamburger from somewhere else."
16813 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16814 #: freeculture.xml:12850
16816 "The danger in media concentration comes not from the concentration, but "
16817 "instead from the feudalism that this concentration, tied to the change in "
16818 "copyright, produces. It is not just that there are a few powerful companies "
16819 "that control an ever expanding slice of the media. It is that this "
16820 "concentration can call upon an equally bloated range of "
16821 "rights—property rights of a historically extreme form—that makes "
16822 "their bigness bad."
16825 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16826 #: freeculture.xml:12860
16828 "It is therefore significant that so many would rally to demand competition "
16829 "and increased diversity. Still, if the rally is understood as being about "
16830 "bigness alone, it is not terribly surprising. We Americans have a long "
16831 "history of fighting \"big,\" wisely or not. That we could be motivated to "
16832 "fight \"big\" again is not something new."
16835 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16836 #: freeculture.xml:12867
16838 "It would be something new, and something very important, if an equal number "
16839 "could be rallied to fight the increasing extremism built within the idea of "
16840 "\"intellectual property.\" Not because balance is alien to our tradition; "
16841 "indeed, as I've argued, balance is our tradition. But because the muscle to "
16842 "think critically about the scope of anything called \"property\" is not well "
16843 "exercised within this tradition anymore."
16846 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16847 #: freeculture.xml:12875
16849 "If we were Achilles, this would be our heel. This would be the place of our "
16853 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16854 #: freeculture.xml:12878
16859 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16860 #: freeculture.xml:12883
16862 "John Borland, \"RIAA Sues 261 File Swappers,\" CNET News.com, September "
16863 "2003, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
16864 "#65</ulink>; Paul R. La Monica, \"Music Industry Sues Swappers,\" CNN/Money, "
16865 "8 September 2003, available at <ulink "
16866 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #66</ulink>; Soni Sangha and "
16867 "Phyllis Furman with Robert Gearty, \"Sued for a Song, N.Y.C. 12-Yr-Old Among "
16868 "261 Cited as Sharers,\" <citetitle>New York Daily News</citetitle>, 9 "
16869 "September 2003, 3; Frank Ahrens, \"RIAA's Lawsuits Meet Surprised Targets; "
16870 "Single Mother in Calif., 12-Year-Old Girl in N.Y. Among Defendants,\" "
16871 "<citetitle>Washington Post</citetitle>, 10 September 2003, E1; Katie Dean, "
16872 "\"Schoolgirl Settles with RIAA,\" <citetitle>Wired News</citetitle>, 10 "
16873 "September 2003, available at <ulink "
16874 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #67</ulink>."
16878 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16879 #: freeculture.xml:12901
16881 "Jon Wiederhorn, \"Eminem Gets Sued … by a Little Old Lady,\" mtv.com, "
16882 "17 September 2003, available at <ulink "
16883 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #68</ulink>."
16888 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16889 #: freeculture.xml:12908
16891 "Kenji Hall, Associated Press, \"Japanese Book May Be Inspiration for Dylan "
16892 "Songs,\" Kansascity.com, 9 July 2003, available at <ulink "
16893 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #69</ulink>."
16896 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16897 #: freeculture.xml:12880
16899 "As I write these final words, the news is filled with stories about the RIAA "
16900 "lawsuits against almost three hundred individuals.<placeholder "
16901 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Eminem has just been sued for \"sampling\" "
16902 "someone else's music.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> The story "
16903 "about Bob Dylan \"stealing\" from a Japanese author has just finished making "
16904 "the rounds.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/> An insider from "
16905 "Hollywood—who insists he must remain anonymous—reports \"an "
16906 "amazing conversation with these studio guys. They've got extraordinary [old] "
16907 "content that they'd love to use but can't because they can't begin to clear "
16908 "the rights. They've got scores of kids who could do amazing things with the "
16909 "content, but it would take scores of lawyers to clean it first.\" "
16910 "Congressmen are talking about deputizing computer viruses to bring down "
16911 "computers thought to violate the law. Universities are threatening expulsion "
16912 "for kids who use a computer to share content."
16915 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
16916 #: freeculture.xml:12925 freeculture.xml:13285
16917 msgid "Creative Commons"
16920 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16921 #: freeculture.xml:12926
16922 msgid "Gil, Gilberto"
16926 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16927 #: freeculture.xml:12931
16929 "\"BBC Plans to Open Up Its Archive to the Public,\" BBC press release, 24 "
16930 "August 2003, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
16935 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16936 #: freeculture.xml:12940
16938 "\"Creative Commons and Brazil,\" Creative Commons Weblog, 6 August 2003, "
16939 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #71</ulink>."
16943 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16944 #: freeculture.xml:12928
16946 "Yet on the other side of the Atlantic, the BBC has just announced that it "
16947 "will build a \"Creative Archive,\" from which British citizens can download "
16948 "BBC content, and rip, mix, and burn it.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
16949 "id=\"0\"/> And in Brazil, the culture minister, Gilberto Gil, himself a folk "
16950 "hero of Brazilian music, has joined with Creative Commons to release content "
16951 "and free licenses in that Latin American country.<placeholder "
16952 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> I've told a dark story. The truth is more "
16953 "mixed. A technology has given us a new freedom. Slowly, some begin to "
16954 "understand that this freedom need not mean anarchy. We can carry a free "
16955 "culture into the twenty-first century, without artists losing and without "
16956 "the potential of digital technology being destroyed. It will take some "
16957 "thought, and more importantly, it will take some will to transform the RCAs "
16958 "of our day into the Causbys."
16962 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16963 #: freeculture.xml:12954
16965 "Common sense must revolt. It must act to free culture. Soon, if this "
16966 "potential is ever to be realized."
16969 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><title>
16970 #: freeculture.xml:12962
16975 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16976 #: freeculture.xml:12966
16978 "At least some who have read this far will agree with me that something must "
16979 "be done to change where we are heading. The balance of this book maps what "
16983 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16984 #: freeculture.xml:12971
16986 "I divide this map into two parts: that which anyone can do now, and that "
16987 "which requires the help of lawmakers. If there is one lesson that we can "
16988 "draw from the history of remaking common sense, it is that it requires "
16989 "remaking how many people think about the very same issue."
16992 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16993 #: freeculture.xml:12977
16995 "That means this movement must begin in the streets. It must recruit a "
16996 "significant number of parents, teachers, librarians, creators, authors, "
16997 "musicians, filmmakers, scientists—all to tell this story in their own "
16998 "words, and to tell their neighbors why this battle is so important."
17001 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17002 #: freeculture.xml:12984
17004 "Once this movement has its effect in the streets, it has some hope of having "
17005 "an effect in Washington. We are still a democracy. What people think "
17006 "matters. Not as much as it should, at least when an RCA stands opposed, but "
17007 "still, it matters. And thus, in the second part below, I sketch changes that "
17008 "Congress could make to better secure a free culture."
17011 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><title>
17012 #: freeculture.xml:12993
17016 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
17017 #: freeculture.xml:12995
17019 "Common sense is with the copyright warriors because the debate so far has "
17020 "been framed at the extremes—as a grand either/or: either property or "
17021 "anarchy, either total control or artists won't be paid. If that really is "
17022 "the choice, then the warriors should win."
17025 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
17026 #: freeculture.xml:13001
17028 "The mistake here is the error of the excluded middle. There are extremes in "
17029 "this debate, but the extremes are not all that there is. There are those who "
17030 "believe in maximal copyright—\"All Rights Reserved\"— and those "
17031 "who reject copyright—\"No Rights Reserved.\" The \"All Rights "
17032 "Reserved\" sorts believe that you should ask permission before you \"use\" a "
17033 "copyrighted work in any way. The \"No Rights Reserved\" sorts believe you "
17034 "should be able to do with content as you wish, regardless of whether you "
17035 "have permission or not."
17039 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
17040 #: freeculture.xml:13011
17042 "When the Internet was first born, its initial architecture effectively "
17043 "tilted in the \"no rights reserved\" direction. Content could be copied "
17044 "perfectly and cheaply; rights could not easily be controlled. Thus, "
17045 "regardless of anyone's desire, the effective regime of copyright under the "
17046 "original design of the Internet was \"no rights reserved.\" Content was "
17047 "\"taken\" regardless of the rights. Any rights were effectively unprotected."
17050 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
17051 #: freeculture.xml:13023
17053 "This initial character produced a reaction (opposite, but not quite equal) "
17054 "by copyright owners. That reaction has been the topic of this book. Through "
17055 "legislation, litigation, and changes to the network's design, copyright "
17056 "holders have been able to change the essential character of the environment "
17057 "of the original Internet. If the original architecture made the effective "
17058 "default \"no rights reserved,\" the future architecture will make the "
17059 "effective default \"all rights reserved.\" The architecture and law that "
17060 "surround the Internet's design will increasingly produce an environment "
17061 "where all use of content requires permission. The \"cut and paste\" world "
17062 "that defines the Internet today will become a \"get permission to cut and "
17063 "paste\" world that is a creator's nightmare."
17066 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
17067 #: freeculture.xml:13037
17069 "What's needed is a way to say something in the middle—neither \"all "
17070 "rights reserved\" nor \"no rights reserved\" but \"some rights "
17071 "reserved\"— and thus a way to respect copyrights but enable creators "
17072 "to free content as they see fit. In other words, we need a way to restore a "
17073 "set of freedoms that we could just take for granted before."
17076 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
17077 #: freeculture.xml:13046
17078 msgid "Rebuilding Freedoms Previously Presumed: Examples"
17081 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17082 #: freeculture.xml:13048
17084 "If you step back from the battle I've been describing here, you will "
17085 "recognize this problem from other contexts. Think about privacy. Before the "
17086 "Internet, most of us didn't have to worry much about data about our lives "
17087 "that we broadcast to the world. If you walked into a bookstore and browsed "
17088 "through some of the works of Karl Marx, you didn't need to worry about "
17089 "explaining your browsing habits to your neighbors or boss. The \"privacy\" "
17090 "of your browsing habits was assured."
17093 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17094 #: freeculture.xml:13058
17095 msgid "What made it assured?"
17098 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17099 #: freeculture.xml:13062
17101 "Well, if we think in terms of the modalities I described in chapter <xref "
17102 "xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"property-i\"/>, your privacy was "
17103 "assured because of an inefficient architecture for gathering data and hence "
17104 "a market constraint (cost) on anyone who wanted to gather that data. If you "
17105 "were a suspected spy for North Korea, working for the CIA, no doubt your "
17106 "privacy would not be assured. But that's because the CIA would (we hope) "
17107 "find it valuable enough to spend the thousands required to track you. But "
17108 "for most of us (again, we can hope), spying doesn't pay. The highly "
17109 "inefficient architecture of real space means we all enjoy a fairly robust "
17110 "amount of privacy. That privacy is guaranteed to us by friction. Not by law "
17111 "(there is no law protecting \"privacy\" in public places), and in many "
17112 "places, not by norms (snooping and gossip are just fun), but instead, by the "
17113 "costs that friction imposes on anyone who would want to spy."
17116 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
17117 #: freeculture.xml:13077
17121 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
17122 #: freeculture.xml:13087
17123 msgid "cookies, Internet"
17126 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17127 #: freeculture.xml:13079
17129 "Enter the Internet, where the cost of tracking browsing in particular has "
17130 "become quite tiny. If you're a customer at Amazon, then as you browse the "
17131 "pages, Amazon collects the data about what you've looked at. You know this "
17132 "because at the side of the page, there's a list of \"recently viewed\" "
17133 "pages. Now, because of the architecture of the Net and the function of "
17134 "cookies on the Net, it is easier to collect the data than not. The friction "
17135 "has disappeared, and hence any \"privacy\" protected by the friction "
17136 "disappears, too. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
17139 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17140 #: freeculture.xml:13090
17142 "Amazon, of course, is not the problem. But we might begin to worry about "
17143 "libraries. If you're one of those crazy lefties who thinks that people "
17144 "should have the \"right\" to browse in a library without the government "
17145 "knowing which books you look at (I'm one of those lefties, too), then this "
17146 "change in the technology of monitoring might concern you. If it becomes "
17147 "simple to gather and sort who does what in electronic spaces, then the "
17148 "friction-induced privacy of yesterday disappears."
17152 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
17153 #: freeculture.xml:13106
17155 "See, for example, Marc Rotenberg, \"Fair Information Practices and the "
17156 "Architecture of Privacy (What Larry Doesn't Get),\" <citetitle>Stanford "
17157 "Technology Law Review</citetitle> 1 (2001): par. 6–18, available at "
17158 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #72</ulink> (describing "
17159 "examples in which technology defines privacy policy). See also Jeffrey "
17160 "Rosen, <citetitle>The Naked Crowd: Reclaiming Security and Freedom in an "
17161 "Anxious Age</citetitle> (New York: Random House, 2004) (mapping tradeoffs "
17162 "between technology and privacy)."
17166 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17167 #: freeculture.xml:13100
17169 "It is this reality that explains the push of many to define \"privacy\" on "
17170 "the Internet. It is the recognition that technology can remove what friction "
17171 "before gave us that leads many to push for laws to do what friction "
17172 "did.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> And whether you're in favor of "
17173 "those laws or not, it is the pattern that is important here. We must take "
17174 "affirmative steps to secure a kind of freedom that was passively provided "
17175 "before. A change in technology now forces those who believe in privacy to "
17176 "affirmatively act where, before, privacy was given by default."
17179 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17180 #: freeculture.xml:13124
17182 "A similar story could be told about the birth of the free software "
17183 "movement. When computers with software were first made available "
17184 "commercially, the software—both the source code and the "
17185 "binaries— was free. You couldn't run a program written for a Data "
17186 "General machine on an IBM machine, so Data General and IBM didn't care much "
17187 "about controlling their software. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
17191 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
17192 #: freeculture.xml:13132
17193 msgid "Stallman, Richard"
17196 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17197 #: freeculture.xml:13134
17199 "That was the world Richard Stallman was born into, and while he was a "
17200 "researcher at MIT, he grew to love the community that developed when one was "
17201 "free to explore and tinker with the software that ran on machines. Being a "
17202 "smart sort himself, and a talented programmer, Stallman grew to depend upon "
17203 "the freedom to add to or modify other people's work."
17206 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17207 #: freeculture.xml:13142
17209 "In an academic setting, at least, that's not a terribly radical idea. In a "
17210 "math department, anyone would be free to tinker with a proof that someone "
17211 "offered. If you thought you had a better way to prove a theorem, you could "
17212 "take what someone else did and change it. In a classics department, if you "
17213 "believed a colleague's translation of a recently discovered text was flawed, "
17214 "you were free to improve it. Thus, to Stallman, it seemed obvious that you "
17215 "should be free to tinker with and improve the code that ran a machine. This, "
17216 "too, was knowledge. Why shouldn't it be open for criticism like anything "
17220 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17221 #: freeculture.xml:13154
17223 "No one answered that question. Instead, the architecture of revenue for "
17224 "computing changed. As it became possible to import programs from one system "
17225 "to another, it became economically attractive (at least in the view of some) "
17226 "to hide the code of your program. So, too, as companies started selling "
17227 "peripherals for mainframe systems. If I could just take your printer driver "
17228 "and copy it, then that would make it easier for me to sell a printer to the "
17229 "market than it was for you."
17233 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17234 #: freeculture.xml:13163
17236 "Thus, the practice of proprietary code began to spread, and by the early "
17237 "1980s, Stallman found himself surrounded by proprietary code. The world of "
17238 "free software had been erased by a change in the economics of computing. And "
17239 "as he believed, if he did nothing about it, then the freedom to change and "
17240 "share software would be fundamentally weakened."
17243 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17244 #: freeculture.xml:13172
17246 "Therefore, in 1984, Stallman began a project to build a free operating "
17247 "system, so that at least a strain of free software would survive. That was "
17248 "the birth of the GNU project, into which Linus Torvalds's \"Linux\" kernel "
17249 "was added to produce the GNU/Linux operating system. <placeholder "
17250 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
17253 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17254 #: freeculture.xml:13180
17256 "Stallman's technique was to use copyright law to build a world of software "
17257 "that must be kept free. Software licensed under the Free Software "
17258 "Foundation's GPL cannot be modified and distributed unless the source code "
17259 "for that software is made available as well. Thus, anyone building upon "
17260 "GPL'd software would have to make their buildings free as well. This would "
17261 "assure, Stallman believed, that an ecology of code would develop that "
17262 "remained free for others to build upon. His fundamental goal was freedom; "
17263 "innovative creative code was a byproduct."
17266 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17267 #: freeculture.xml:13191
17269 "Stallman was thus doing for software what privacy advocates now do for "
17270 "privacy. He was seeking a way to rebuild a kind of freedom that was taken "
17271 "for granted before. Through the affirmative use of licenses that bind "
17272 "copyrighted code, Stallman was affirmatively reclaiming a space where free "
17273 "software would survive. He was actively protecting what before had been "
17274 "passively guaranteed."
17277 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17278 #: freeculture.xml:13199
17280 "Finally, consider a very recent example that more directly resonates with "
17281 "the story of this book. This is the shift in the way academic and scientific "
17282 "journals are produced."
17286 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17287 #: freeculture.xml:13207
17289 "As digital technologies develop, it is becoming obvious to many that "
17290 "printing thousands of copies of journals every month and sending them to "
17291 "libraries is perhaps not the most efficient way to distribute "
17292 "knowledge. Instead, journals are increasingly becoming electronic, and "
17293 "libraries and their users are given access to these electronic journals "
17294 "through password-protected sites. Something similar to this has been "
17295 "happening in law for almost thirty years: Lexis and Westlaw have had "
17296 "electronic versions of case reports available to subscribers to their "
17297 "service. Although a Supreme Court opinion is not copyrighted, and anyone is "
17298 "free to go to a library and read it, Lexis and Westlaw are also free to "
17299 "charge users for the privilege of gaining access to that Supreme Court "
17300 "opinion through their respective services."
17303 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17304 #: freeculture.xml:13223
17306 "There's nothing wrong in general with this, and indeed, the ability to "
17307 "charge for access to even public domain materials is a good incentive for "
17308 "people to develop new and innovative ways to spread knowledge. The law has "
17309 "agreed, which is why Lexis and Westlaw have been allowed to flourish. And if "
17310 "there's nothing wrong with selling the public domain, then there could be "
17311 "nothing wrong, in principle, with selling access to material that is not in "
17312 "the public domain."
17315 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17316 #: freeculture.xml:13232
17318 "But what if the only way to get access to social and scientific data was "
17319 "through proprietary services? What if no one had the ability to browse this "
17320 "data except by paying for a subscription?"
17323 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17324 #: freeculture.xml:13237
17326 "As many are beginning to notice, this is increasingly the reality with "
17327 "scientific journals. When these journals were distributed in paper form, "
17328 "libraries could make the journals available to anyone who had access to the "
17329 "library. Thus, patients with cancer could become cancer experts because the "
17330 "library gave them access. Or patients trying to understand the risks of a "
17331 "certain treatment could research those risks by reading all available "
17332 "articles about that treatment. This freedom was therefore a function of the "
17333 "institution of libraries (norms) and the technology of paper journals "
17334 "(architecture)—namely, that it was very hard to control access to a "
17338 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17339 #: freeculture.xml:13249
17341 "As journals become electronic, however, the publishers are demanding that "
17342 "libraries not give the general public access to the journals. This means "
17343 "that the freedoms provided by print journals in public libraries begin to "
17344 "disappear. Thus, as with privacy and with software, a changing technology "
17345 "and market shrink a freedom taken for granted before."
17348 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17349 #: freeculture.xml:13257
17351 "This shrinking freedom has led many to take affirmative steps to restore the "
17352 "freedom that has been lost. The Public Library of Science (PLoS), for "
17353 "example, is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to making scientific research "
17354 "available to anyone with a Web connection. Authors of scientific work submit "
17355 "that work to the Public Library of Science. That work is then subject to "
17356 "peer review. If accepted, the work is then deposited in a public, electronic "
17357 "archive and made permanently available for free. PLoS also sells a print "
17358 "version of its work, but the copyright for the print journal does not "
17359 "inhibit the right of anyone to redistribute the work for free. <placeholder "
17360 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
17363 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17364 #: freeculture.xml:13271
17366 "This is one of many such efforts to restore a freedom taken for granted "
17367 "before, but now threatened by changing technology and markets. There's no "
17368 "doubt that this alternative competes with the traditional publishers and "
17369 "their efforts to make money from the exclusive distribution of content. But "
17370 "competition in our tradition is presumptively a good—especially when "
17371 "it helps spread knowledge and science."
17374 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
17375 #: freeculture.xml:13283
17376 msgid "Rebuilding Free Culture: One Idea"
17379 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17380 #: freeculture.xml:13288
17382 "The same strategy could be applied to culture, as a response to the "
17383 "increasing control effected through law and technology."
17386 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17387 #: freeculture.xml:13292
17389 "Enter the Creative Commons. The Creative Commons is a nonprofit corporation "
17390 "established in Massachusetts, but with its home at Stanford University. Its "
17391 "aim is to build a layer of <emphasis>reasonable</emphasis> copyright on top "
17392 "of the extremes that now reign. It does this by making it easy for people to "
17393 "build upon other people's work, by making it simple for creators to express "
17394 "the freedom for others to take and build upon their work. Simple tags, tied "
17395 "to human-readable descriptions, tied to bulletproof licenses, make this "
17400 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17401 #: freeculture.xml:13303
17403 "<emphasis>Simple</emphasis>—which means without a middleman, or "
17404 "without a lawyer. By developing a free set of licenses that people can "
17405 "attach to their content, Creative Commons aims to mark a range of content "
17406 "that can easily, and reliably, be built upon. These tags are then linked to "
17407 "machine-readable versions of the license that enable computers automatically "
17408 "to identify content that can easily be shared. These three expressions "
17409 "together—a legal license, a human-readable description, and "
17410 "machine-readable tags—constitute a Creative Commons license. A "
17411 "Creative Commons license constitutes a grant of freedom to anyone who "
17412 "accesses the license, and more importantly, an expression of the ideal that "
17413 "the person associated with the license believes in something different than "
17414 "the \"All\" or \"No\" extremes. Content is marked with the CC mark, which "
17415 "does not mean that copyright is waived, but that certain freedoms are given."
17418 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17419 #: freeculture.xml:13321
17421 "These freedoms are beyond the freedoms promised by fair use. Their precise "
17422 "contours depend upon the choices the creator makes. The creator can choose a "
17423 "license that permits any use, so long as attribution is given. She can "
17424 "choose a license that permits only noncommercial use. She can choose a "
17425 "license that permits any use so long as the same freedoms are given to other "
17426 "uses (\"share and share alike\"). Or any use so long as no derivative use is "
17427 "made. Or any use at all within developing nations. Or any sampling use, so "
17428 "long as full copies are not made. Or lastly, any educational use."
17431 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17432 #: freeculture.xml:13332
17434 "These choices thus establish a range of freedoms beyond the default of "
17435 "copyright law. They also enable freedoms that go beyond traditional fair "
17436 "use. And most importantly, they express these freedoms in a way that "
17437 "subsequent users can use and rely upon without the need to hire a "
17438 "lawyer. Creative Commons thus aims to build a layer of content, governed by "
17439 "a layer of reasonable copyright law, that others can build upon. Voluntary "
17440 "choice of individuals and creators will make this content available. And "
17441 "that content will in turn enable us to rebuild a public domain."
17444 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
17445 #: freeculture.xml:13353
17446 msgid "Garlick, Mia"
17449 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17450 #: freeculture.xml:13343
17452 "This is just one project among many within the Creative Commons. And of "
17453 "course, Creative Commons is not the only organization pursuing such "
17454 "freedoms. But the point that distinguishes the Creative Commons from many is "
17455 "that we are not interested only in talking about a public domain or in "
17456 "getting legislators to help build a public domain. Our aim is to build a "
17457 "movement of consumers and producers of content (\"content conducers,\" as "
17458 "attorney Mia Garlick calls them) who help build the public domain and, by "
17459 "their work, demonstrate the importance of the public domain to other "
17460 "creativity. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
17463 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17464 #: freeculture.xml:13356
17466 "The aim is not to fight the \"All Rights Reserved\" sorts. The aim is to "
17467 "complement them. The problems that the law creates for us as a culture are "
17468 "produced by insane and unintended consequences of laws written centuries "
17469 "ago, applied to a technology that only Jefferson could have imagined. The "
17470 "rules may well have made sense against a background of technologies from "
17471 "centuries ago, but they do not make sense against the background of digital "
17472 "technologies. New rules—with different freedoms, expressed in ways so "
17473 "that humans without lawyers can use them—are needed. Creative Commons "
17474 "gives people a way effectively to begin to build those rules."
17477 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17478 #: freeculture.xml:13368
17480 "Why would creators participate in giving up total control? Some participate "
17481 "to better spread their content. Cory Doctorow, for example, is a science "
17482 "fiction author. His first novel, <citetitle>Down and Out in the Magic "
17483 "Kingdom</citetitle>, was released on-line and for free, under a Creative "
17484 "Commons license, on the same day that it went on sale in bookstores."
17487 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17488 #: freeculture.xml:13375
17490 "Why would a publisher ever agree to this? I suspect his publisher reasoned "
17491 "like this: There are two groups of people out there: (1) those who will buy "
17492 "Cory's book whether or not it's on the Internet, and (2) those who may never "
17493 "hear of Cory's book, if it isn't made available for free on the "
17494 "Internet. Some part of (1) will download Cory's book instead of buying "
17495 "it. Call them bad-(1)s. Some part of (2) will download Cory's book, like "
17496 "it, and then decide to buy it. Call them (2)-goods. If there are more "
17497 "(2)-goods than bad-(1)s, the strategy of releasing Cory's book free on-line "
17498 "will probably <emphasis>increase</emphasis> sales of Cory's book."
17501 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17502 #: freeculture.xml:13387
17504 "Indeed, the experience of his publisher clearly supports that conclusion. "
17505 "The book's first printing was exhausted months before the publisher had "
17506 "expected. This first novel of a science fiction author was a total success."
17509 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
17510 #: freeculture.xml:13402
17511 msgid "Free for All (Wayner)"
17514 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
17515 #: freeculture.xml:13403
17516 msgid "Wayner, Peter"
17519 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17520 #: freeculture.xml:13393
17522 "The idea that free content might increase the value of nonfree content was "
17523 "confirmed by the experience of another author. Peter Wayner, who wrote a "
17524 "book about the free software movement titled <citetitle>Free for "
17525 "All</citetitle>, made an electronic version of his book free on-line under a "
17526 "Creative Commons license after the book went out of print. He then monitored "
17527 "used book store prices for the book. As predicted, as the number of "
17528 "downloads increased, the used book price for his book increased, as well. "
17529 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
17534 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
17535 #: freeculture.xml:13421
17537 "<citetitle>Willful Infringement: A Report from the Front Lines of the Real "
17538 "Culture Wars</citetitle> (2003), produced by Jed Horovitz, directed by Greg "
17539 "Hittelman, a Fiat Lucre production, available at <ulink "
17540 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #72</ulink>."
17543 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
17544 #: freeculture.xml:13428
17545 msgid "Leaphart, Walter"
17548 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17549 #: freeculture.xml:13406
17551 "These are examples of using the Commons to better spread proprietary "
17552 "content. I believe that is a wonderful and common use of the Commons. There "
17553 "are others who use Creative Commons licenses for other reasons. Many who use "
17554 "the \"sampling license\" do so because anything else would be "
17555 "hypocritical. The sampling license says that others are free, for commercial "
17556 "or noncommercial purposes, to sample content from the licensed work; they "
17557 "are just not free to make full copies of the licensed work available to "
17558 "others. This is consistent with their own art—they, too, sample from "
17559 "others. Because the <emphasis>legal</emphasis> costs of sampling are so high "
17560 "(Walter Leaphart, manager of the rap group Public Enemy, which was born "
17561 "sampling the music of others, has stated that he does not \"allow\" Public "
17562 "Enemy to sample anymore, because the legal costs are so high<placeholder "
17563 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>), these artists release into the creative "
17564 "environment content that others can build upon, so that their form of "
17565 "creativity might grow. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
17568 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17569 #: freeculture.xml:13431
17571 "Finally, there are many who mark their content with a Creative Commons "
17572 "license just because they want to express to others the importance of "
17573 "balance in this debate. If you just go along with the system as it is, you "
17574 "are effectively saying you believe in the \"All Rights Reserved\" "
17575 "model. Good for you, but many do not. Many believe that however appropriate "
17576 "that rule is for Hollywood and freaks, it is not an appropriate description "
17577 "of how most creators view the rights associated with their content. The "
17578 "Creative Commons license expresses this notion of \"Some Rights Reserved,\" "
17579 "and gives many the chance to say it to others."
17583 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17584 #: freeculture.xml:13443
17586 "In the first six months of the Creative Commons experiment, over 1 million "
17587 "objects were licensed with these free-culture licenses. The next step is "
17588 "partnerships with middleware content providers to help them build into their "
17589 "technologies simple ways for users to mark their content with Creative "
17590 "Commons freedoms. Then the next step is to watch and celebrate creators who "
17591 "build content based upon content set free."
17594 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17595 #: freeculture.xml:13453
17597 "These are first steps to rebuilding a public domain. They are not mere "
17598 "arguments; they are action. Building a public domain is the first step to "
17599 "showing people how important that domain is to creativity and "
17600 "innovation. Creative Commons relies upon voluntary steps to achieve this "
17601 "rebuilding. They will lead to a world in which more than voluntary steps are "
17605 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17606 #: freeculture.xml:13461
17608 "Creative Commons is just one example of voluntary efforts by individuals and "
17609 "creators to change the mix of rights that now govern the creative field. The "
17610 "project does not compete with copyright; it complements it. Its aim is not "
17611 "to defeat the rights of authors, but to make it easier for authors and "
17612 "creators to exercise their rights more flexibly and cheaply. That "
17613 "difference, we believe, will enable creativity to spread more easily."
17616 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><title>
17617 #: freeculture.xml:13475
17621 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
17622 #: freeculture.xml:13477
17624 "We will not reclaim a free culture by individual action alone. It will also "
17625 "take important reforms of laws. We have a long way to go before the "
17626 "politicians will listen to these ideas and implement these reforms. But "
17627 "that also means that we have time to build awareness around the changes that "
17631 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
17632 #: freeculture.xml:13484
17634 "In this chapter, I outline five kinds of changes: four that are general, and "
17635 "one that's specific to the most heated battle of the day, music. Each is a "
17636 "step, not an end. But any of these steps would carry us a long way to our "
17640 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
17641 #: freeculture.xml:13491
17642 msgid "1. More Formalities"
17645 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17646 #: freeculture.xml:13493
17648 "If you buy a house, you have to record the sale in a deed. If you buy land "
17649 "upon which to build a house, you have to record the purchase in a deed. If "
17650 "you buy a car, you get a bill of sale and register the car. If you buy an "
17651 "airplane ticket, it has your name on it."
17655 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17656 #: freeculture.xml:13500
17658 "These are all formalities associated with property. They are requirements "
17659 "that we all must bear if we want our property to be protected."
17662 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17663 #: freeculture.xml:13505
17665 "In contrast, under current copyright law, you automatically get a copyright, "
17666 "regardless of whether you comply with any formality. You don't have to "
17667 "register. You don't even have to mark your content. The default is control, "
17668 "and \"formalities\" are banished."
17671 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17672 #: freeculture.xml:13511
17676 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17677 #: freeculture.xml:13514
17679 "As I suggested in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
17680 "linkend=\"property-i\"/>, the motivation to abolish formalities was a good "
17681 "one. In the world before digital technologies, formalities imposed a burden "
17682 "on copyright holders without much benefit. Thus, it was progress when the "
17683 "law relaxed the formal requirements that a copyright owner must bear to "
17684 "protect and secure his work. Those formalities were getting in the way."
17687 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17688 #: freeculture.xml:13523
17690 "But the Internet changes all this. Formalities today need not be a "
17691 "burden. Rather, the world without formalities is the world that burdens "
17692 "creativity. Today, there is no simple way to know who owns what, or with "
17693 "whom one must deal in order to use or build upon the creative work of "
17694 "others. There are no records, there is no system to trace— there is no "
17695 "simple way to know how to get permission. Yet given the massive increase in "
17696 "the scope of copyright's rule, getting permission is a necessary step for "
17697 "any work that builds upon our past. And thus, the <emphasis>lack</emphasis> "
17698 "of formalities forces many into silence where they otherwise could speak."
17702 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
17703 #: freeculture.xml:13537
17705 "The proposal I am advancing here would apply to American works only. "
17706 "Obviously, I believe it would be beneficial for the same idea to be adopted "
17707 "by other countries as well."
17710 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17711 #: freeculture.xml:13535
17713 "The law should therefore change this requirement<placeholder "
17714 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>—but it should not change it by going back "
17715 "to the old, broken system. We should require formalities, but we should "
17716 "establish a system that will create the incentives to minimize the burden of "
17717 "these formalities."
17720 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17721 #: freeculture.xml:13545
17723 "The important formalities are three: marking copyrighted work, registering "
17724 "copyrights, and renewing the claim to copyright. Traditionally, the first of "
17725 "these three was something the copyright owner did; the second two were "
17726 "something the government did. But a revised system of formalities would "
17727 "banish the government from the process, except for the sole purpose of "
17728 "approving standards developed by others."
17731 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><title>
17732 #: freeculture.xml:13557
17733 msgid "REGISTRATION AND RENEWAL"
17736 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
17737 #: freeculture.xml:13559
17739 "Under the old system, a copyright owner had to file a registration with the "
17740 "Copyright Office to register or renew a copyright. When filing that "
17741 "registration, the copyright owner paid a fee. As with most government "
17742 "agencies, the Copyright Office had little incentive to minimize the burden "
17743 "of registration; it also had little incentive to minimize the fee. And as "
17744 "the Copyright Office is not a main target of government policymaking, the "
17745 "office has historically been terribly underfunded. Thus, when people who "
17746 "know something about the process hear this idea about formalities, their "
17747 "first reaction is panic—nothing could be worse than forcing people to "
17748 "deal with the mess that is the Copyright Office."
17751 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
17752 #: freeculture.xml:13572
17754 "Yet it is always astonishing to me that we, who come from a tradition of "
17755 "extraordinary innovation in governmental design, can no longer think "
17756 "innovatively about how governmental functions can be designed. Just because "
17757 "there is a public purpose to a government role, it doesn't follow that the "
17758 "government must actually administer the role. Instead, we should be creating "
17759 "incentives for private parties to serve the public, subject to standards "
17760 "that the government sets."
17763 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
17764 #: freeculture.xml:13581
17766 "In the context of registration, one obvious model is the Internet. There "
17767 "are at least 32 million Web sites registered around the world. Domain name "
17768 "owners for these Web sites have to pay a fee to keep their registration "
17769 "alive. In the main top-level domains (.com, .org, .net), there is a central "
17770 "registry. The actual registrations are, however, performed by many competing "
17771 "registrars. That competition drives the cost of registering down, and more "
17772 "importantly, it drives the ease with which registration occurs up."
17776 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
17777 #: freeculture.xml:13591
17779 "We should adopt a similar model for the registration and renewal of "
17780 "copyrights. The Copyright Office may well serve as the central registry, but "
17781 "it should not be in the registrar business. Instead, it should establish a "
17782 "database, and a set of standards for registrars. It should approve "
17783 "registrars that meet its standards. Those registrars would then compete with "
17784 "one another to deliver the cheapest and simplest systems for registering and "
17785 "renewing copyrights. That competition would substantially lower the burden "
17786 "of this formality—while producing a database of registrations that "
17787 "would facilitate the licensing of content."
17790 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><title>
17791 #: freeculture.xml:13606
17795 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
17796 #: freeculture.xml:13608
17798 "It used to be that the failure to include a copyright notice on a creative "
17799 "work meant that the copyright was forfeited. That was a harsh punishment for "
17800 "failing to comply with a regulatory rule—akin to imposing the death "
17801 "penalty for a parking ticket in the world of creative rights. Here again, "
17802 "there is no reason that a marking requirement needs to be enforced in this "
17803 "way. And more importantly, there is no reason a marking requirement needs to "
17804 "be enforced uniformly across all media."
17807 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
17808 #: freeculture.xml:13618
17810 "The aim of marking is to signal to the public that this work is copyrighted "
17811 "and that the author wants to enforce his rights. The mark also makes it easy "
17812 "to locate a copyright owner to secure permission to use the work."
17815 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
17816 #: freeculture.xml:13624
17818 "One of the problems the copyright system confronted early on was that "
17819 "different copyrighted works had to be differently marked. It wasn't clear "
17820 "how or where a statue was to be marked, or a record, or a film. A new "
17821 "marking requirement could solve these problems by recognizing the "
17822 "differences in media, and by allowing the system of marking to evolve as "
17823 "technologies enable it to. The system could enable a special signal from the "
17824 "failure to mark—not the loss of the copyright, but the loss of the "
17825 "right to punish someone for failing to get permission first."
17829 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para><footnote><para>
17830 #: freeculture.xml:13641
17832 "There would be a complication with derivative works that I have not solved "
17833 "here. In my view, the law of derivatives creates a more complicated system "
17834 "than is justified by the marginal incentive it creates."
17838 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
17839 #: freeculture.xml:13634
17841 "Let's start with the last point. If a copyright owner allows his work to be "
17842 "published without a copyright notice, the consequence of that failure need "
17843 "not be that the copyright is lost. The consequence could instead be that "
17844 "anyone has the right to use this work, until the copyright owner complains "
17845 "and demonstrates that it is his work and he doesn't give "
17846 "permission.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The meaning of an "
17847 "unmarked work would therefore be \"use unless someone complains.\" If "
17848 "someone does complain, then the obligation would be to stop using the work "
17849 "in any new work from then on though no penalty would attach for existing "
17850 "uses. This would create a strong incentive for copyright owners to mark "
17854 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
17855 #: freeculture.xml:13654
17857 "That in turn raises the question about how work should best be marked. Here "
17858 "again, the system needs to adjust as the technologies evolve. The best way "
17859 "to ensure that the system evolves is to limit the Copyright Office's role to "
17860 "that of approving standards for marking content that have been crafted "
17864 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
17865 #: freeculture.xml:13661
17867 "For example, if a recording industry association devises a method for "
17868 "marking CDs, it would propose that to the Copyright Office. The Copyright "
17869 "Office would hold a hearing, at which other proposals could be made. The "
17870 "Copyright Office would then select the proposal that it judged preferable, "
17871 "and it would base that choice <emphasis>solely</emphasis> upon the "
17872 "consideration of which method could best be integrated into the registration "
17873 "and renewal system. We would not count on the government to innovate; but we "
17874 "would count on the government to keep the product of innovation in line with "
17875 "its other important functions."
17878 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
17879 #: freeculture.xml:13673
17881 "Finally, marking content clearly would simplify registration requirements. "
17882 "If photographs were marked by author and year, there would be little reason "
17883 "not to allow a photographer to reregister, for example, all photographs "
17884 "taken in a particular year in one quick step. The aim of the formality is "
17885 "not to burden the creator; the system itself should be kept as simple as "
17889 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
17890 #: freeculture.xml:13681
17892 "The objective of formalities is to make things clear. The existing system "
17893 "does nothing to make things clear. Indeed, it seems designed to make things "
17897 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
17898 #: freeculture.xml:13686
17900 "If formalities such as registration were reinstated, one of the most "
17901 "difficult aspects of relying upon the public domain would be removed. It "
17902 "would be simple to identify what content is presumptively free; it would be "
17903 "simple to identify who controls the rights for a particular kind of content; "
17904 "it would be simple to assert those rights, and to renew that assertion at "
17905 "the appropriate time."
17908 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
17909 #: freeculture.xml:13698
17910 msgid "2. Shorter Terms"
17913 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17914 #: freeculture.xml:13700
17916 "The term of copyright has gone from fourteen years to ninety-five years for "
17917 "corporate authors, and life of the author plus seventy years for natural "
17922 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
17923 #: freeculture.xml:13713
17925 "\"A Radical Rethink,\" <citetitle>Economist</citetitle>, 366:8308 (25 "
17926 "January 2003): 15, available at <ulink "
17927 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #74</ulink>."
17930 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17931 #: freeculture.xml:13705
17933 "In <citetitle>The Future of Ideas</citetitle>, I proposed a "
17934 "seventy-five-year term, granted in five-year increments with a requirement "
17935 "of renewal every five years. That seemed radical enough at the time. But "
17936 "after we lost <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
17937 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, the proposals became even more "
17938 "radical. <citetitle>The Economist</citetitle> endorsed a proposal for a "
17939 "fourteen-year copyright term.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
17940 "Others have proposed tying the term to the term for patents."
17943 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17944 #: freeculture.xml:13720
17946 "I agree with those who believe that we need a radical change in copyright's "
17947 "term. But whether fourteen years or seventy-five, there are four principles "
17948 "that are important to keep in mind about copyright terms."
17952 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
17953 #: freeculture.xml:13728
17955 "<emphasis>Keep it short:</emphasis> The term should be as long as necessary "
17956 "to give incentives to create, but no longer. If it were tied to very strong "
17957 "protections for authors (so authors were able to reclaim rights from "
17958 "publishers), rights to the same work (not derivative works) might be "
17959 "extended further. The key is not to tie the work up with legal regulations "
17960 "when it no longer benefits an author."
17965 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
17966 #: freeculture.xml:13737
17968 "<emphasis>Keep it simple:</emphasis> The line between the public domain and "
17969 "protected content must be kept clear. Lawyers like the fuzziness of \"fair "
17970 "use,\" and the distinction between \"ideas\" and \"expression.\" That kind "
17971 "of law gives them lots of work. But our framers had a simpler idea in mind: "
17972 "protected versus unprotected. The value of short terms is that there is "
17973 "little need to build exceptions into copyright when the term itself is kept "
17974 "short. A clear and active \"lawyer-free zone\" makes the complexities of "
17975 "\"fair use\" and \"idea/expression\" less necessary to navigate."
17979 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para><footnote><para>
17980 #: freeculture.xml:13758
17982 "Department of Veterans Affairs, Veteran's Application for Compensation "
17983 "and/or Pension, VA Form 21-526 (OMB Approved No. 2900-0001), available at "
17984 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #75</ulink>."
17987 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para><indexterm><primary>
17988 #: freeculture.xml:13766
17989 msgid "veterans' pensions"
17992 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
17993 #: freeculture.xml:13750
17995 "<emphasis>Keep it alive:</emphasis> Copyright should have to be renewed. "
17996 "Especially if the maximum term is long, the copyright owner should be "
17997 "required to signal periodically that he wants the protection continued. This "
17998 "need not be an onerous burden, but there is no reason this monopoly "
17999 "protection has to be granted for free. On average, it takes ninety minutes "
18000 "for a veteran to apply for a pension.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
18001 "id=\"0\"/> If we make veterans suffer that burden, I don't see why we "
18002 "couldn't require authors to spend ten minutes every fifty years to file a "
18003 "single form. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
18007 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
18008 #: freeculture.xml:13770
18010 "<emphasis>Keep it prospective:</emphasis> Whatever the term of copyright "
18011 "should be, the clearest lesson that economists teach is that a term once "
18012 "given should not be extended. It might have been a mistake in 1923 for the "
18013 "law to offer authors only a fifty-six-year term. I don't think so, but it's "
18014 "possible. If it was a mistake, then the consequence was that we got fewer "
18015 "authors to create in 1923 than we otherwise would have. But we can't correct "
18016 "that mistake today by increasing the term. No matter what we do today, we "
18017 "will not increase the number of authors who wrote in 1923. Of course, we can "
18018 "increase the reward that those who write now get (or alternatively, increase "
18019 "the copyright burden that smothers many works that are today invisible). But "
18020 "increasing their reward will not increase their creativity in 1923. What's "
18021 "not done is not done, and there's nothing we can do about that now."
18024 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18025 #: freeculture.xml:13786
18027 "These changes together should produce an <emphasis>average</emphasis> "
18028 "copyright term that is much shorter than the current term. Until 1976, the "
18029 "average term was just 32.2 years. We should be aiming for the same."
18032 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18033 #: freeculture.xml:13792
18035 "No doubt the extremists will call these ideas \"radical.\" (After all, I "
18036 "call them \"extremists.\") But again, the term I recommended was longer than "
18037 "the term under Richard Nixon. How \"radical\" can it be to ask for a more "
18038 "generous copyright law than Richard Nixon presided over?"
18041 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
18042 #: freeculture.xml:13802
18043 msgid "3. Free Use Vs. Fair Use"
18046 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18047 #: freeculture.xml:13804
18049 "As I observed at the beginning of this book, property law originally granted "
18050 "property owners the right to control their property from the ground to the "
18051 "heavens. The airplane came along. The scope of property rights quickly "
18052 "changed. There was no fuss, no constitutional challenge. It made no sense "
18053 "anymore to grant that much control, given the emergence of that new "
18057 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18058 #: freeculture.xml:13812
18060 "Our Constitution gives Congress the power to give authors \"exclusive "
18061 "right\" to \"their writings.\" Congress has given authors an exclusive right "
18062 "to \"their writings\" plus any derivative writings (made by others) that are "
18063 "sufficiently close to the author's original work. Thus, if I write a book, "
18064 "and you base a movie on that book, I have the power to deny you the right to "
18065 "release that movie, even though that movie is not \"my writing.\""
18069 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
18070 #: freeculture.xml:13825
18072 "Benjamin Kaplan, <citetitle>An Unhurried View of Copyright</citetitle> (New "
18073 "York: Columbia University Press, 1967), 32."
18076 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
18077 #: freeculture.xml:13831
18078 msgid "Kaplan, Benjamin"
18081 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18082 #: freeculture.xml:13821
18084 "Congress granted the beginnings of this right in 1870, when it expanded the "
18085 "exclusive right of copyright to include a right to control translations and "
18086 "dramatizations of a work.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The "
18087 "courts have expanded it slowly through judicial interpretation ever "
18088 "since. This expansion has been commented upon by one of the law's greatest "
18089 "judges, Judge Benjamin Kaplan. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
18093 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
18094 #: freeculture.xml:13839
18098 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><blockquote><para>
18099 #: freeculture.xml:13835
18101 "So inured have we become to the extension of the monopoly to a large range "
18102 "of so-called derivative works, that we no longer sense the oddity of "
18103 "accepting such an enlargement of copyright while yet intoning the "
18104 "abracadabra of idea and expression.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
18107 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18108 #: freeculture.xml:13844
18110 "I think it's time to recognize that there are airplanes in this field and "
18111 "the expansiveness of these rights of derivative use no longer make "
18112 "sense. More precisely, they don't make sense for the period of time that a "
18113 "copyright runs. And they don't make sense as an amorphous grant. Consider "
18114 "each limitation in turn."
18117 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18118 #: freeculture.xml:13851
18120 "<emphasis>Term:</emphasis> If Congress wants to grant a derivative right, "
18121 "then that right should be for a much shorter term. It makes sense to protect "
18122 "John Grisham's right to sell the movie rights to his latest novel (or at "
18123 "least I'm willing to assume it does); but it does not make sense for that "
18124 "right to run for the same term as the underlying copyright. The derivative "
18125 "right could be important in inducing creativity; it is not important long "
18126 "after the creative work is done. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
18129 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18130 #: freeculture.xml:13864
18132 "<emphasis>Scope:</emphasis> Likewise should the scope of derivative rights "
18133 "be narrowed. Again, there are some cases in which derivative rights are "
18134 "important. Those should be specified. But the law should draw clear lines "
18135 "around regulated and unregulated uses of copyrighted material. When all "
18136 "\"reuse\" of creative material was within the control of businesses, perhaps "
18137 "it made sense to require lawyers to negotiate the lines. It no longer makes "
18138 "sense for lawyers to negotiate the lines. Think about all the creative "
18139 "possibilities that digital technologies enable; now imagine pouring molasses "
18140 "into the machines. That's what this general requirement of permission does "
18141 "to the creative process. Smothers it."
18144 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18145 #: freeculture.xml:13877
18147 "This was the point that Alben made when describing the making of the Clint "
18148 "Eastwood CD. While it makes sense to require negotiation for foreseeable "
18149 "derivative rights—turning a book into a movie, or a poem into a "
18150 "musical score—it doesn't make sense to require negotiation for the "
18151 "unforeseeable. Here, a statutory right would make much more sense."
18154 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
18155 #: freeculture.xml:13893
18156 msgid "Goldstein, Paul"
18159 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
18160 #: freeculture.xml:13891
18162 "Paul Goldstein, <citetitle>Copyright's Highway: From Gutenberg to the "
18163 "Celestial Jukebox</citetitle> (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003), "
18164 "187–216. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
18167 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18168 #: freeculture.xml:13885
18170 "In each of these cases, the law should mark the uses that are protected, and "
18171 "the presumption should be that other uses are not protected. This is the "
18172 "reverse of the recommendation of my colleague Paul Goldstein.<placeholder "
18173 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> His view is that the law should be written so "
18174 "that expanded protections follow expanded uses."
18177 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18178 #: freeculture.xml:13899
18180 "Goldstein's analysis would make perfect sense if the cost of the legal "
18181 "system were small. But as we are currently seeing in the context of the "
18182 "Internet, the uncertainty about the scope of protection, and the incentives "
18183 "to protect existing architectures of revenue, combined with a strong "
18184 "copyright, weaken the process of innovation."
18188 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18189 #: freeculture.xml:13906
18191 "The law could remedy this problem either by removing protection beyond the "
18192 "part explicitly drawn or by granting reuse rights upon certain statutory "
18193 "conditions. Either way, the effect would be to free a great deal of culture "
18194 "to others to cultivate. And under a statutory rights regime, that reuse "
18195 "would earn artists more income."
18198 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
18199 #: freeculture.xml:13916
18200 msgid "4. Liberate the Music—Again"
18203 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18204 #: freeculture.xml:13918
18206 "The battle that got this whole war going was about music, so it wouldn't be "
18207 "fair to end this book without addressing the issue that is, to most people, "
18208 "most pressing—music. There is no other policy issue that better "
18209 "teaches the lessons of this book than the battles around the sharing of "
18213 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18214 #: freeculture.xml:13925
18216 "The appeal of file-sharing music was the crack cocaine of the Internet's "
18217 "growth. It drove demand for access to the Internet more powerfully than any "
18218 "other single application. It was the Internet's killer app—possibly in "
18219 "two senses of that word. It no doubt was the application that drove demand "
18220 "for bandwidth. It may well be the application that drives demand for "
18221 "regulations that in the end kill innovation on the network."
18224 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18225 #: freeculture.xml:13934
18227 "The aim of copyright, with respect to content in general and music in "
18228 "particular, is to create the incentives for music to be composed, performed, "
18229 "and, most importantly, spread. The law does this by giving an exclusive "
18230 "right to a composer to control public performances of his work, and to a "
18231 "performing artist to control copies of her performance."
18234 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18235 #: freeculture.xml:13941
18237 "File-sharing networks complicate this model by enabling the spread of "
18238 "content for which the performer has not been paid. But of course, that's not "
18239 "all the file-sharing networks do. As I described in chapter <xref "
18240 "xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"piracy\"/>, they enable four "
18241 "different kinds of sharing:"
18245 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
18246 #: freeculture.xml:13950
18248 "There are some who are using sharing networks as substitutes for purchasing "
18253 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
18254 #: freeculture.xml:13955
18256 "There are also some who are using sharing networks to sample, on the way to "
18262 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
18263 #: freeculture.xml:13961
18265 "There are many who are using file-sharing networks to get access to content "
18266 "that is no longer sold but is still under copyright or that would have been "
18267 "too cumbersome to buy off the Net."
18271 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
18272 #: freeculture.xml:13967
18274 "There are many who are using file-sharing networks to get access to content "
18275 "that is not copyrighted or to get access that the copyright owner plainly "
18279 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18280 #: freeculture.xml:13973
18282 "Any reform of the law needs to keep these different uses in focus. It must "
18283 "avoid burdening type D even if it aims to eliminate type A. The eagerness "
18284 "with which the law aims to eliminate type A, moreover, should depend upon "
18285 "the magnitude of type B. As with VCRs, if the net effect of sharing is "
18286 "actually not very harmful, the need for regulation is significantly "
18290 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18291 #: freeculture.xml:13981
18293 "As I said in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
18294 "linkend=\"piracy\"/>, the actual harm caused by sharing is controversial. "
18295 "For the purposes of this chapter, however, I assume the harm is real. I "
18296 "assume, in other words, that type A sharing is significantly greater than "
18297 "type B, and is the dominant use of sharing networks."
18300 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18301 #: freeculture.xml:13989
18303 "Nonetheless, there is a crucial fact about the current technological context "
18304 "that we must keep in mind if we are to understand how the law should "
18308 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18309 #: freeculture.xml:13994
18311 "Today, file sharing is addictive. In ten years, it won't be. It is addictive "
18312 "today because it is the easiest way to gain access to a broad range of "
18313 "content. It won't be the easiest way to get access to a broad range of "
18314 "content in ten years. Today, access to the Internet is cumbersome and "
18315 "slow—we in the United States are lucky to have broadband service at "
18316 "1.5 MBs, and very rarely do we get service at that speed both up and "
18317 "down. Although wireless access is growing, most of us still get access "
18318 "across wires. Most only gain access through a machine with a keyboard. The "
18319 "idea of the always on, always connected Internet is mainly just an idea."
18323 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18324 #: freeculture.xml:14006
18326 "But it will become a reality, and that means the way we get access to the "
18327 "Internet today is a technology in transition. Policy makers should not make "
18328 "policy on the basis of technology in transition. They should make policy on "
18329 "the basis of where the technology is going. The question should not be, how "
18330 "should the law regulate sharing in this world? The question should be, what "
18331 "law will we require when the network becomes the network it is clearly "
18332 "becoming? That network is one in which every machine with electricity is "
18333 "essentially on the Net; where everywhere you are—except maybe the "
18334 "desert or the Rockies—you can instantaneously be connected to the "
18335 "Internet. Imagine the Internet as ubiquitous as the best cell-phone service, "
18336 "where with the flip of a device, you are connected."
18340 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
18341 #: freeculture.xml:14039
18343 "See, for example, \"Music Media Watch,\" The J@pan Inc. Newsletter, 3 April "
18344 "2002, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
18348 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18349 #: freeculture.xml:14021
18351 "In that world, it will be extremely easy to connect to services that give "
18352 "you access to content on the fly—such as Internet radio, content that "
18353 "is streamed to the user when the user demands. Here, then, is the critical "
18354 "point: When it is <emphasis>extremely</emphasis> easy to connect to services "
18355 "that give access to content, it will be <emphasis>easier</emphasis> to "
18356 "connect to services that give you access to content than it will be to "
18357 "download and store content <emphasis>on the many devices you will have for "
18358 "playing content</emphasis>. It will be easier, in other words, to subscribe "
18359 "than it will be to be a database manager, as everyone in the "
18360 "download-sharing world of Napster-like technologies essentially is. Content "
18361 "services will compete with content sharing, even if the services charge "
18362 "money for the content they give access to. Already cell-phone services in "
18363 "Japan offer music (for a fee) streamed over cell phones (enhanced with plugs "
18364 "for headphones). The Japanese are paying for this content even though "
18365 "\"free\" content is available in the form of MP3s across the "
18366 "Web.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
18370 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18371 #: freeculture.xml:14046
18373 "This point about the future is meant to suggest a perspective on the "
18374 "present: It is emphatically temporary. The \"problem\" with file "
18375 "sharing—to the extent there is a real problem—is a problem that "
18376 "will increasingly disappear as it becomes easier to connect to the "
18377 "Internet. And thus it is an extraordinary mistake for policy makers today "
18378 "to be \"solving\" this problem in light of a technology that will be gone "
18379 "tomorrow. The question should not be how to regulate the Internet to "
18380 "eliminate file sharing (the Net will evolve that problem away). The question "
18381 "instead should be how to assure that artists get paid, during this "
18382 "transition between twentieth-century models for doing business and "
18383 "twenty-first-century technologies."
18386 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18387 #: freeculture.xml:14062
18389 "The answer begins with recognizing that there are different \"problems\" "
18390 "here to solve. Let's start with type D content—uncopyrighted content "
18391 "or copyrighted content that the artist wants shared. The \"problem\" with "
18392 "this content is to make sure that the technology that would enable this kind "
18393 "of sharing is not rendered illegal. You can think of it this way: Pay phones "
18394 "are used to deliver ransom demands, no doubt. But there are many who need "
18395 "to use pay phones who have nothing to do with ransoms. It would be wrong to "
18396 "ban pay phones in order to eliminate kidnapping."
18399 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18400 #: freeculture.xml:14073
18402 "Type C content raises a different \"problem.\" This is content that was, at "
18403 "one time, published and is no longer available. It may be unavailable "
18404 "because the artist is no longer valuable enough for the record label he "
18405 "signed with to carry his work. Or it may be unavailable because the work is "
18406 "forgotten. Either way, the aim of the law should be to facilitate the access "
18407 "to this content, ideally in a way that returns something to the artist."
18410 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18411 #: freeculture.xml:14082
18413 "Again, the model here is the used book store. Once a book goes out of print, "
18414 "it may still be available in libraries and used book stores. But libraries "
18415 "and used book stores don't pay the copyright owner when someone reads or "
18416 "buys an out-of-print book. That makes total sense, of course, since any "
18417 "other system would be so burdensome as to eliminate the possibility of used "
18418 "book stores' existing. But from the author's perspective, this \"sharing\" "
18419 "of his content without his being compensated is less than ideal."
18422 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18423 #: freeculture.xml:14092
18425 "The model of used book stores suggests that the law could simply deem "
18426 "out-of-print music fair game. If the publisher does not make copies of the "
18427 "music available for sale, then commercial and noncommercial providers would "
18428 "be free, under this rule, to \"share\" that content, even though the sharing "
18429 "involved making a copy. The copy here would be incidental to the trade; in a "
18430 "context where commercial publishing has ended, trading music should be as "
18431 "free as trading books."
18435 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18436 #: freeculture.xml:14103
18438 "Alternatively, the law could create a statutory license that would ensure "
18439 "that artists get something from the trade of their work. For example, if the "
18440 "law set a low statutory rate for the commercial sharing of content that was "
18441 "not offered for sale by a commercial publisher, and if that rate were "
18442 "automatically transferred to a trust for the benefit of the artist, then "
18443 "businesses could develop around the idea of trading this content, and "
18444 "artists would benefit from this trade."
18447 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18448 #: freeculture.xml:14113
18450 "This system would also create an incentive for publishers to keep works "
18451 "available commercially. Works that are available commercially would not be "
18452 "subject to this license. Thus, publishers could protect the right to charge "
18453 "whatever they want for content if they kept the work commercially "
18454 "available. But if they don't keep it available, and instead, the computer "
18455 "hard disks of fans around the world keep it alive, then any royalty owed for "
18456 "such copying should be much less than the amount owed a commercial "
18460 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18461 #: freeculture.xml:14123
18463 "The hard case is content of types A and B, and again, this case is hard only "
18464 "because the extent of the problem will change over time, as the technologies "
18465 "for gaining access to content change. The law's solution should be as "
18466 "flexible as the problem is, understanding that we are in the middle of a "
18467 "radical transformation in the technology for delivering and accessing "
18471 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18472 #: freeculture.xml:14131
18474 "So here's a solution that will at first seem very strange to both sides in "
18475 "this war, but which upon reflection, I suggest, should make some sense."
18478 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18479 #: freeculture.xml:14135
18481 "Stripped of the rhetoric about the sanctity of property, the basic claim of "
18482 "the content industry is this: A new technology (the Internet) has harmed a "
18483 "set of rights that secure copyright. If those rights are to be protected, "
18484 "then the content industry should be compensated for that harm. Just as the "
18485 "technology of tobacco harmed the health of millions of Americans, or the "
18486 "technology of asbestos caused grave illness to thousands of miners, so, too, "
18487 "has the technology of digital networks harmed the interests of the content "
18492 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18493 #: freeculture.xml:14146
18495 "I love the Internet, and so I don't like likening it to tobacco or "
18496 "asbestos. But the analogy is a fair one from the perspective of the law. "
18497 "And it suggests a fair response: Rather than seeking to destroy the "
18498 "Internet, or the p2p technologies that are currently harming content "
18499 "providers on the Internet, we should find a relatively simple way to "
18500 "compensate those who are harmed."
18503 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
18504 #: freeculture.xml:14191
18505 msgid "Fisher, William"
18508 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
18509 #: freeculture.xml:14193 freeculture.xml:14219
18510 msgid "Promises to Keep (Fisher)"
18513 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
18514 #: freeculture.xml:14158
18516 "William Fisher, <citetitle>Digital Music: Problems and "
18517 "Possibilities</citetitle> (last revised: 10 October 2000), available at "
18518 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #77</ulink>; William "
18519 "Fisher, <citetitle>Promises to Keep: Technology, Law, and the Future of "
18520 "Entertainment</citetitle> (forthcoming) (Stanford: Stanford University "
18521 "Press, 2004), ch. 6, available at <ulink "
18522 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #78</ulink>. Professor Netanel "
18523 "has proposed a related idea that would exempt noncommercial sharing from the "
18524 "reach of copyright and would establish compensation to artists to balance "
18525 "any loss. See Neil Weinstock Netanel, \"Impose a Noncommercial Use Levy to "
18526 "Allow Free P2P File Sharing,\" available at <ulink "
18527 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #79</ulink>. For other proposals, "
18528 "see Lawrence Lessig, \"Who's Holding Back Broadband?\" <citetitle>Washington "
18529 "Post</citetitle>, 8 January 2002, A17; Philip S. Corwin on behalf of Sharman "
18530 "Networks, A Letter to Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Chairman of the Senate "
18531 "Foreign Relations Committee, 26 February 2002, available at <ulink "
18532 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #80</ulink>; Serguei Osokine, "
18533 "<citetitle>A Quick Case for Intellectual Property Use Fee "
18534 "(IPUF)</citetitle>, 3 March 2002, available at <ulink "
18535 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #81</ulink>; Jefferson Graham, "
18536 "\"Kazaa, Verizon Propose to Pay Artists Directly,\" <citetitle>USA "
18537 "Today</citetitle>, 13 May 2002, available at <ulink "
18538 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #82</ulink>; Steven M. Cherry, "
18539 "\"Getting Copyright Right,\" IEEE Spectrum Online, 1 July 2002, available at "
18540 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #83</ulink>; Declan "
18541 "McCullagh, \"Verizon's Copyright Campaign,\" CNET News.com, 27 August 2002, "
18542 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #84</ulink>. "
18543 "Fisher's proposal is very similar to Richard Stallman's proposal for "
18544 "DAT. Unlike Fisher's, Stallman's proposal would not pay artists directly "
18545 "proportionally, though more popular artists would get more than the less "
18546 "popular. As is typical with Stallman, his proposal predates the current "
18547 "debate by about a decade. See <ulink "
18548 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #85</ulink>. <placeholder "
18549 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> "
18550 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/>"
18553 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18554 #: freeculture.xml:14154
18556 "The idea would be a modification of a proposal that has been floated by "
18557 "Harvard law professor William Fisher.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
18558 "id=\"0\"/> Fisher suggests a very clever way around the current impasse of "
18559 "the Internet. Under his plan, all content capable of digital transmission "
18560 "would (1) be marked with a digital watermark (don't worry about how easy it "
18561 "is to evade these marks; as you'll see, there's no incentive to evade "
18562 "them). Once the content is marked, then entrepreneurs would develop (2) "
18563 "systems to monitor how many items of each content were distributed. On the "
18564 "basis of those numbers, then (3) artists would be compensated. The "
18565 "compensation would be paid for by (4) an appropriate tax."
18568 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18569 #: freeculture.xml:14206
18571 "Fisher's proposal is careful and comprehensive. It raises a million "
18572 "questions, most of which he answers well in his upcoming book, "
18573 "<citetitle>Promises to Keep</citetitle>. The modification that I would make "
18574 "is relatively simple: Fisher imagines his proposal replacing the existing "
18575 "copyright system. I imagine it complementing the existing system. The aim "
18576 "of the proposal would be to facilitate compensation to the extent that harm "
18577 "could be shown. This compensation would be temporary, aimed at facilitating "
18578 "a transition between regimes. And it would require renewal after a period of "
18579 "years. If it continues to make sense to facilitate free exchange of content, "
18580 "supported through a taxation system, then it can be continued. If this form "
18581 "of protection is no longer necessary, then the system could lapse into the "
18582 "old system of controlling access. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
18587 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18588 #: freeculture.xml:14222
18590 "Fisher would balk at the idea of allowing the system to lapse. His aim is "
18591 "not just to ensure that artists are paid, but also to ensure that the system "
18592 "supports the widest range of \"semiotic democracy\" possible. But the aims "
18593 "of semiotic democracy would be satisfied if the other changes I described "
18594 "were accomplished—in particular, the limits on derivative uses. A "
18595 "system that simply charges for access would not greatly burden semiotic "
18596 "democracy if there were few limitations on what one was allowed to do with "
18597 "the content itself."
18600 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18601 #: freeculture.xml:14235
18603 "No doubt it would be difficult to calculate the proper measure of \"harm\" "
18604 "to an industry. But the difficulty of making that calculation would be "
18605 "outweighed by the benefit of facilitating innovation. This background system "
18606 "to compensate would also not need to interfere with innovative proposals "
18607 "such as Apple's MusicStore. As experts predicted when Apple launched the "
18608 "MusicStore, it could beat \"free\" by being easier than free is. This has "
18609 "proven correct: Apple has sold millions of songs at even the very high price "
18610 "of 99 cents a song. (At 99 cents, the cost is the equivalent of a per-song "
18611 "CD price, though the labels have none of the costs of a CD to pay.) Apple's "
18612 "move was countered by Real Networks, offering music at just 79 cents a "
18613 "song. And no doubt there will be a great deal of competition to offer and "
18614 "sell music on-line."
18617 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18618 #: freeculture.xml:14250
18620 "This competition has already occurred against the background of \"free\" "
18621 "music from p2p systems. As the sellers of cable television have known for "
18622 "thirty years, and the sellers of bottled water for much more than that, "
18623 "there is nothing impossible at all about \"competing with free.\" Indeed, if "
18624 "anything, the competition spurs the competitors to offer new and better "
18625 "products. This is precisely what the competitive market was to be "
18626 "about. Thus in Singapore, though piracy is rampant, movie theaters are often "
18627 "luxurious—with \"first class\" seats, and meals served while you watch "
18628 "a movie—as they struggle and succeed in finding ways to compete with "
18632 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18633 #: freeculture.xml:14262
18635 "This regime of competition, with a backstop to assure that artists don't "
18636 "lose, would facilitate a great deal of innovation in the delivery of "
18637 "content. That competition would continue to shrink type A sharing. It would "
18638 "inspire an extraordinary range of new innovators—ones who would have a "
18639 "right to the content, and would no longer fear the uncertain and "
18640 "barbarically severe punishments of the law."
18643 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18644 #: freeculture.xml:14271
18645 msgid "In summary, then, my proposal is this:"
18649 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18650 #: freeculture.xml:14276
18652 "The Internet is in transition. We should not be regulating a technology in "
18653 "transition. We should instead be regulating to minimize the harm to "
18654 "interests affected by this technological change, while enabling, and "
18655 "encouraging, the most efficient technology we can create."
18658 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18659 #: freeculture.xml:14283
18660 msgid "We can minimize that harm while maximizing the benefit to innovation by"
18664 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
18665 #: freeculture.xml:14289
18666 msgid "guaranteeing the right to engage in type D sharing;"
18670 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
18671 #: freeculture.xml:14293
18673 "permitting noncommercial type C sharing without liability, and commercial "
18674 "type C sharing at a low and fixed rate set by statute;"
18678 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
18679 #: freeculture.xml:14299
18681 "while in this transition, taxing and compensating for type A sharing, to the "
18682 "extent actual harm is demonstrated."
18685 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18686 #: freeculture.xml:14304
18688 "But what if \"piracy\" doesn't disappear? What if there is a competitive "
18689 "market providing content at a low cost, but a significant number of "
18690 "consumers continue to \"take\" content for nothing? Should the law do "
18694 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18695 #: freeculture.xml:14310
18697 "Yes, it should. But, again, what it should do depends upon how the facts "
18698 "develop. These changes may not eliminate type A sharing. But the real issue "
18699 "is not whether it eliminates sharing in the abstract. The real issue is its "
18700 "effect on the market. Is it better (a) to have a technology that is 95 "
18701 "percent secure and produces a market of size <citetitle>x</citetitle>, or "
18702 "(b) to have a technology that is 50 percent secure but produces a market of "
18703 "five times <citetitle>x</citetitle>? Less secure might produce more "
18704 "unauthorized sharing, but it is likely to also produce a much bigger market "
18705 "in authorized sharing. The most important thing is to assure artists' "
18706 "compensation without breaking the Internet. Once that's assured, then it may "
18707 "well be appropriate to find ways to track down the petty pirates."
18711 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18712 #: freeculture.xml:14324
18714 "But we're a long way away from whittling the problem down to this subset of "
18715 "type A sharers. And our focus until we're there should not be on finding "
18716 "ways to break the Internet. Our focus until we're there should be on how to "
18717 "make sure the artists are paid, while protecting the space for innovation "
18718 "and creativity that the Internet is."
18721 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
18722 #: freeculture.xml:14335
18723 msgid "5. Fire Lots of Lawyers"
18726 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18727 #: freeculture.xml:14337
18729 "I'm a lawyer. I make lawyers for a living. I believe in the law. I believe "
18730 "in the law of copyright. Indeed, I have devoted my life to working in law, "
18731 "not because there are big bucks at the end but because there are ideals at "
18732 "the end that I would love to live."
18735 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18736 #: freeculture.xml:14343
18738 "Yet much of this book has been a criticism of lawyers, or the role lawyers "
18739 "have played in this debate. The law speaks to ideals, but it is my view that "
18740 "our profession has become too attuned to the client. And in a world where "
18741 "the rich clients have one strong view, the unwillingness of the profession "
18742 "to question or counter that one strong view queers the law."
18746 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
18747 #: freeculture.xml:14360
18749 "Lawrence Lessig, \"Copyright's First Amendment\" (Melville B. Nimmer "
18750 "Memorial Lecture), <citetitle>UCLA Law Review</citetitle> 48 (2001): 1057, "
18754 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18755 #: freeculture.xml:14351
18757 "The evidence of this bending is compelling. I'm attacked as a \"radical\" by "
18758 "many within the profession, yet the positions that I am advocating are "
18759 "precisely the positions of some of the most moderate and significant figures "
18760 "in the history of this branch of the law. Many, for example, thought crazy "
18761 "the challenge that we brought to the Copyright Term Extension Act. Yet just "
18762 "thirty years ago, the dominant scholar and practitioner in the field of "
18763 "copyright, Melville Nimmer, thought it obvious.<placeholder "
18764 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
18767 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18768 #: freeculture.xml:14366
18770 "However, my criticism of the role that lawyers have played in this debate is "
18771 "not just about a professional bias. It is more importantly about our failure "
18772 "to actually reckon the costs of the law."
18775 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
18776 #: freeculture.xml:14376
18778 "A good example is the work of Professor Stan Liebowitz. Liebowitz is to be "
18779 "commended for his careful review of data about infringement, leading him to "
18780 "question his own publicly stated position—twice. He initially "
18781 "predicted that downloading would substantially harm the industry. He then "
18782 "revised his view in light of the data, and he has since revised his view "
18783 "again. Compare Stan J. Liebowitz, <citetitle>Rethinking the Network "
18784 "Economy: The True Forces That Drive the Digital Marketplace</citetitle> (New "
18785 "York: Amacom, 2002), (reviewing his original view but expressing skepticism) "
18786 "with Stan J. Liebowitz, \"Will MP3s Annihilate the Record Industry?\" "
18787 "working paper, June 2003, available at <ulink "
18788 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #86</ulink>. Liebowitz's careful "
18789 "analysis is extremely valuable in estimating the effect of file-sharing "
18790 "technology. In my view, however, he underestimates the costs of the legal "
18791 "system. See, for example, <citetitle>Rethinking</citetitle>, 174–76. "
18792 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
18795 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18796 #: freeculture.xml:14371
18798 "Economists are supposed to be good at reckoning costs and benefits. But "
18799 "more often than not, economists, with no clue about how the legal system "
18800 "actually functions, simply assume that the transaction costs of the legal "
18801 "system are slight.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> They see a "
18802 "system that has been around for hundreds of years, and they assume it works "
18803 "the way their elementary school civics class taught them it works."
18807 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18808 #: freeculture.xml:14400
18810 "But the legal system doesn't work. Or more accurately, it doesn't work for "
18811 "anyone except those with the most resources. Not because the system is "
18812 "corrupt. I don't think our legal system (at the federal level, at least) is "
18813 "at all corrupt. I mean simply because the costs of our legal system are so "
18814 "astonishingly high that justice can practically never be done."
18817 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18818 #: freeculture.xml:14408
18820 "These costs distort free culture in many ways. A lawyer's time is billed at "
18821 "the largest firms at more than $400 per hour. How much time should such a "
18822 "lawyer spend reading cases carefully, or researching obscure strands of "
18823 "authority? The answer is the increasing reality: very little. The law "
18824 "depended upon the careful articulation and development of doctrine, but the "
18825 "careful articulation and development of legal doctrine depends upon careful "
18826 "work. Yet that careful work costs too much, except in the most high-profile "
18827 "and costly cases."
18830 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18831 #: freeculture.xml:14418
18833 "The costliness and clumsiness and randomness of this system mock our "
18834 "tradition. And lawyers, as well as academics, should consider it their duty "
18835 "to change the way the law works—or better, to change the law so that "
18836 "it works. It is wrong that the system works well only for the top 1 percent "
18837 "of the clients. It could be made radically more efficient, and inexpensive, "
18838 "and hence radically more just."
18841 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18842 #: freeculture.xml:14426
18844 "But until that reform is complete, we as a society should keep the law away "
18845 "from areas that we know it will only harm. And that is precisely what the "
18846 "law will too often do if too much of our culture is left to its review."
18849 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18850 #: freeculture.xml:14432
18852 "Think about the amazing things your kid could do or make with digital "
18853 "technology—the film, the music, the Web page, the blog. Or think about "
18854 "the amazing things your community could facilitate with digital "
18855 "technology—a wiki, a barn raising, activism to change something. "
18856 "Think about all those creative things, and then imagine cold molasses poured "
18857 "onto the machines. This is what any regime that requires permission "
18858 "produces. Again, this is the reality of Brezhnev's Russia."
18862 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18863 #: freeculture.xml:14441
18865 "The law should regulate in certain areas of culture—but it should "
18866 "regulate culture only where that regulation does good. Yet lawyers rarely "
18867 "test their power, or the power they promote, against this simple pragmatic "
18868 "question: \"Will it do good?\" When challenged about the expanding reach of "
18869 "the law, the lawyer answers, \"Why not?\""
18872 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18873 #: freeculture.xml:14450
18875 "We should ask, \"Why?\" Show me why your regulation of culture is "
18876 "needed. Show me how it does good. And until you can show me both, keep your "
18880 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><title>
18881 #: freeculture.xml:14459
18885 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18886 #: freeculture.xml:14461
18888 "Throughout this text, there are references to links on the World Wide "
18889 "Web. As anyone who has tried to use the Web knows, these links can be highly "
18890 "unstable. I have tried to remedy the instability by redirecting readers to "
18891 "the original source through the Web site associated with this book. For each "
18892 "link below, you can go to http://free-culture.cc/notes and locate the "
18893 "original source by clicking on the number after the # sign. If the original "
18894 "link remains alive, you will be redirected to that link. If the original "
18895 "link has disappeared, you will be redirected to an appropriate reference for "
18899 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><title>
18900 #: freeculture.xml:14476
18901 msgid "ACKNOWLEDGMENTS"
18904 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18905 #: freeculture.xml:14478
18907 "This book is the product of a long and as yet unsuccessful struggle that "
18908 "began when I read of Eric Eldred's war to keep books free. Eldred's work "
18909 "helped launch a movement, the free culture movement, and it is to him that "
18910 "this book is dedicated."
18913 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18914 #: freeculture.xml:14484
18916 "I received guidance in various places from friends and academics, including "
18917 "Glenn Brown, Peter DiCola, Jennifer Mnookin, Richard Posner, Mark Rose, and "
18918 "Kathleen Sullivan. And I received correction and guidance from many amazing "
18919 "students at Stanford Law School and Stanford University. They included "
18920 "Andrew B. Coan, John Eden, James P. Fellers, Christopher Guzelian, Erica "
18921 "Goldberg, Robert Hallman, Andrew Harris, Matthew Kahn, Brian Link, Ohad "
18922 "Mayblum, Alina Ng, and Erica Platt. I am particularly grateful to Catherine "
18923 "Crump and Harry Surden, who helped direct their research, and to Laura "
18924 "Lynch, who brilliantly managed the army that they assembled, and provided "
18925 "her own critical eye on much of this."
18929 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18930 #: freeculture.xml:14497
18932 "Yuko Noguchi helped me to understand the laws of Japan as well as its "
18933 "culture. I am thankful to her, and to the many in Japan who helped me "
18934 "prepare this book: Joi Ito, Takayuki Matsutani, Naoto Misaki, Michihiro "
18935 "Sasaki, Hiromichi Tanaka, Hiroo Yamagata, and Yoshihiro Yonezawa. I am "
18936 "thankful as well as to Professor Nobuhiro Nakayama, and the Tokyo University "
18937 "Business Law Center, for giving me the chance to spend time in Japan, and to "
18938 "Tadashi Shiraishi and Kiyokazu Yamagami for their generous help while I was "
18942 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18943 #: freeculture.xml:14508
18945 "These are the traditional sorts of help that academics regularly draw "
18946 "upon. But in addition to them, the Internet has made it possible to receive "
18947 "advice and correction from many whom I have never even met. Among those who "
18948 "have responded with extremely helpful advice to requests on my blog about "
18949 "the book are Dr. Mohammad Al-Ubaydli, David Gerstein, and Peter DiMauro, as "
18950 "well as a long list of those who had specific ideas about ways to develop my "
18951 "argument. They included Richard Bondi, Steven Cherry, David Coe, Nik "
18952 "Cubrilovic, Bob Devine, Charles Eicher, Thomas Guida, Elihu M. Gerson, "
18953 "Jeremy Hunsinger, Vaughn Iverson, John Karabaic, Jeff Keltner, James "
18954 "Lindenschmidt, K. L. Mann, Mark Manning, Nora McCauley, Jeffrey McHugh, Evan "
18955 "McMullen, Fred Norton, John Pormann, Pedro A. D. Rezende, Shabbir Safdar, "
18956 "Saul Schleimer, Clay Shirky, Adam Shostack, Kragen Sitaker, Chris Smith, "
18957 "Bruce Steinberg, Andrzej Jan Taramina, Sean Walsh, Matt Wasserman, Miljenko "
18958 "Williams, \"Wink,\" Roger Wood, \"Ximmbo da Jazz,\" and Richard Yanco. (I "
18959 "apologize if I have missed anyone; with computers come glitches, and a crash "
18960 "of my e-mail system meant I lost a bunch of great replies.)"
18963 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18964 #: freeculture.xml:14528
18966 "Richard Stallman and Michael Carroll each read the whole book in draft, and "
18967 "each provided extremely helpful correction and advice. Michael helped me to "
18968 "see more clearly the significance of the regulation of derivitive works. And "
18969 "Richard corrected an embarrassingly large number of errors. While my work is "
18970 "in part inspired by Stallman's, he does not agree with me in important "
18971 "places throughout this book."
18974 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18975 #: freeculture.xml:14537
18977 "Finally, and forever, I am thankful to Bettina, who has always insisted that "
18978 "there would be unending happiness away from these battles, and who has "
18979 "always been right. This slow learner is, as ever, grateful for her perpetual "
18980 "patience and love."