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e.biz 25, and named one of Scientific
+American's 50 visionaries.
A graduate of the University of
Pennsylvania, Cambridge University, and Yale Law School, Lessig
clerked for Judge Richard Posner of the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of
Appeals.
@@ -196,7 +196,7 @@ York, New York
Copyright © Lawrence Lessig. All rights reserved.
The Coming of Copyright Perpetuity,
@@ -361,18 +362,18 @@ Unlike actual law, Internet software has no capacity to punish. It doesn't affect people who aren't online (and only a tiny minority of the world population is). And if you don't like the Internet's system, you can always flip off the modem. -David Pogue, "Don't Just Chat, Do Something," New York Times , 30 January 2000. +David Pogue,Don't Just Chat, Do Something,New York Times , 30 January 2000.
code,functioned as a kind of law—and his review suggested the happy thought that if life in cyberspace got bad, we -could always "drizzle, drazzle, druzzle, drome"-like simply flip a +could always
drizzle, drazzle, druzzle, drome-like simply flip a switch and be back home. Turn off the modem, unplug the computer, and any troubles that exist in
affectus anymore.
people who aren't online.There is no switch that will insulate us from the Internet's effect.
free culture—not +
freeas in
free beer(to borrow a phrase from the founder of the free software movement
freeas in
free speech,
free markets,+
free trade,
free enterprise,
free will,and
free elections.A free culture supports and protects creators and innovators. It does this directly by granting intellectual property rights. But it does so indirectly by limiting the reach of those rights, to guarantee that @@ -408,13 +409,13 @@ follow-on creators and innovators remain
permission culture—a culture in which creators get to create only with the permission of the powerful, or of creators from the past.
we+on the Left or
youon the Right, but we who have no stake in the particular industries of culture that defined the twentieth century. Whether you are on the Left or the Right, if you are in this sense disinterested, then the story I tell here will trouble you. For the @@ -427,9 +428,9 @@ We saw a glimpse of this bipartisan outrage in the early summer of 2003. As the FCC considered changes in media ownership rules that would relax limits on media concentration, an extraordinary coalition generated more than 700,000 letters to the FCC opposing the change. -As William Safire described marching "uncomfortably alongside CodePink +As William Safire described marching
uncomfortably alongside CodePink Women for Peace and the National Rifle Association, between liberal -Olympia Snowe and conservative Ted Stevens," he formulated perhaps +Olympia Snowe and conservative Ted Stevens,he formulated perhaps most simply just what was at stake: the concentration of power. And as he asked,
The Great Media Gulp,
merelyderivative.
an indefinite extent, upwards.
an indefinite +extent, upwards,then the government was trespassing on their property, and the Causbys wanted it to stop.
takingof property without compensation. The Court acknowledged +that
it is ancient doctrine that common law ownership of +the land extended to the periphery of the universe.But Justice Douglas had no patience for ancient doctrine. In a single paragraph, hundreds of years of property law were erased. As he wrote for the Court,
takingif the government's use of its land effectively destroyed the value of the Causbys' land. This example was -suggested to me by Keith Aoki's wonderful piece, "(Intellectual) +suggested to me by Keith Aoki's wonderful piece,
(Intellectual) Property and Sovereignty: Notes Toward a Cultural Geography of -Authorship,"Stanford Law Review 48 (1996): 1293, 1333. See also Paul +Authorship,
Common sense revolts at the idea.
Common sense revolts +at the idea.But whether it takes pages or a few words, it is the special genius of a common law system, as ours is, that the law adjusts to the technologies of the time. And as it adjusts, it changes. Ideas that were as solid as rock in one age crumble in another. @@ -601,13 +602,13 @@ themselves into walls), the Causbys of the world would find it very hard to unite and stop the idea, and the technology, that the Wright brothers had birthed. The Wright brothers spat airplanes into the technological meme pool; the idea then spread like a virus in a chicken -coop; farmers like the Causbys found themselves surrounded by "what -seemed reasonable" given the technology that the Wrights had produced. +coop; farmers like the Causbys found themselves surrounded by
what +seemed reasonablegiven the technology that the Wrights had produced. They could stand on their farms, dead chickens in hand, and shake their fists at these newfangled technologies all they wanted. They could call their representatives or even file a lawsuit. But in the -end, the force of what seems "obvious" to everyone else—the power of -"common sense"—would prevail. Their "private interest" would not be +end, the force of what seems
obviousto everyone else—the power of +
common sense—would prevail. Their
private interestwould not be allowed to defeat an obvious public gain.
This is amateur station W2AG at Yonkers, New York, operating on +frequency modulation at two and a half meters.
music +box.
radio.But when Armstrong demonstrated his invention, Sarnoff was not pleased.
Saints: The Heroes and Geniuses of the +Electronic Era,First Electronic Church of America, at www.webstationone.com/fecha, available at
The Ever-Shifting Internet Population: A New Look at +Internet Access and the Digital Divide,Pew Internet and American Life Project, 15 April 2003: 6, available at
commercial cultureI mean that part of our culture that is produced and sold or produced to be sold. By -"noncommercial culture" I mean all the rest. When old men sat around +
noncommercial cultureI mean all the rest. When old men sat around parks or on street corners telling stories that kids and others consumed, that was -noncommercial culture. When Noah Webster published his "Reader," or +noncommercial culture. When Noah Webster published his
Reader,or Joel Barlow his poetry, that was commercial culture.
free.The ordinary ways in which ordinary individuals shared and transformed their culture—telling stories, reenacting scenes from plays or TV, participating in fan clubs, sharing music, making tapes—were left alone by the law. @@ -848,7 +849,7 @@ State copyright law historically protected not just the commercial interest in publication, but also a privacy interest. By granting authors the exclusive right to first publication, state copyright law gave authors the power to control the spread of facts about them. See Samuel D. Warren and Louis -D. Brandeis, "The Right to Privacy," Harvard Law Review 4 (1890): 193, +D. Brandeis,
The Right to Privacy,Harvard Law Review 4 (1890): 193, 198–200.
piracywill +be permitted, and whether
propertywill be protected. The
warthat has been waged against the technologies of the Internet—what Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) president Jack Valenti -calls his "own terrorist war"
own terrorist war
Black Hawk Download: Moving Beyond Music, Pirates +Use New Tools to Turn the Net into an Illicit Video Club,
creative property.I believe that
piracyis wrong, and that the +law, properly tuned, should punish
piracy,whether on or off the Internet.
pirateswill also rid our culture of values that have been integral to our tradition from the start.
Copyright and a Democratic Civil Society,
centrality of technologyto ordinary life. I don't believe in gods, digital or otherwise. Nor is it an effort to demonize any individual or group, for neither do I believe in a devil, corporate or otherwise. It is not a morality tale. Nor is it a call to jihad @@ -996,17 +997,17 @@ come to understand the source of this war. We must resolve it soon.
property.The property of this war is not as tangible as the Causbys', and no innocent chicken has yet to lose its life. Yet the ideas surrounding -this "property" are as obvious to most as the Causbys' claim about the +this
propertyare as obvious to most as the Causbys' claim about the sacredness of their farm was to them. We are the Causbys. Most of us take for granted the extraordinarily powerful claims that the owners -of "intellectual property" now assert. Most of us, like the Causbys, +of
intellectual propertynow assert. Most of us, like the Causbys, treat these claims as obvious. And hence we, like the Causbys, object when a new technology interferes with this property. It is as plain to us as it was to them that the new technologies of the Internet are -"trespassing" upon legitimate claims of "property." It is as plain to +
trespassingupon legitimate claims of
property.It is as plain to us as it was to them that the law should intervene to stop this trespass.
culturewas as
ownedas it is now. And yet there has never been a time when the concentration of power to control the
intellectual +property.What the law demands today is increasingly as silly as a sheriff arresting an airplane for trespass. But the consequences of this silliness will be much more profound.
piracyand +
property.My aim in this book's next two parts is to explore these two ideas.
something new,is destroying something very old. Rather than understanding the changes -the Internet might permit, and rather than taking time to let "common -sense" resolve how best to respond, we are allowing those most +the Internet might permit, and rather than taking time to let
common +senseresolve how best to respond, we are allowing those most threatened by the changes to use their power to change the law—and more importantly, to use their power to change something fundamental about who we have always been. @@ -1103,7 +1104,7 @@ to which most of us remain oblivious.
PIRACY
piracy.The precise contours of this concept, +
piracy,are hard to sketch, but the animating injustice is easy to capture. As Lord Mansfield wrote in a case that extended the reach of English copyright law to include sheet music,
waragainst
piracy.The Internet has provoked this war. The Internet makes possible the efficient spread of content. Peer-to-peer (p2p) file sharing is among the most efficient of the efficient technologies the Internet @@ -1141,21 +1142,21 @@ This efficiency does not respect the traditional lines of copyright. The network doesn't discriminate between the sharing of copyrighted and uncopyrighted content. Thus has there been a vast amount of sharing of copyrighted content. That sharing in turn has excited the -war, as copyright owners fear the sharing will "rob the author of the -profit." +war, as copyright owners fear the sharing will
rob the author of the +profit.
propertyagainst this +
piracy.A generation of Americans, the warriors warn, is being +raised to believe that
propertyshould be
free.Forget tattoos, never mind body piercing—our kids are becoming
piracyis wrong, and that pirates should be punished. But before we summon the executioners, we should put this -notion of "piracy" in some context. For as the concept is increasingly +notion of
piracyin some context. For as the concept is increasingly used, at its core is an extraordinary idea that is almost certainly wrong.
if value, then righttheory of creative property
Expressive Genericity: Trademarks as Language +in the Pepsi Generation,
The Birds May Sing, but Campers Can't Unless They Pay +Up,
Calling Off the Copyright War: In Battle of Property vs. Free +Speech, No One Wins,
value(the songs) so there must have been a +
right—even against the Girl Scouts.
if value, then righttheory of creative property has never been America's theory of creative property. It has never taken hold within our law.
copying,when the law regulates as broadly and obscurely as it does, the extension matters a lot. The burden of this law now vastly outweighs any original benefit—certainly as it affects noncommercial creativity, and increasingly as it affects commercial @@ -1245,8 +1246,8 @@ commercial and noncommercial creativity, the law burdens this creativity with insanely complex and vague rules and with the threat of obscenely severe penalties. We may -be seeing, as Richard Florida writes, the "Rise of the Creative -Class."
Rise of the Creative +Class.
piracy.
I have never been so thrilled +in my life. Nothing since has ever equaled it.
Steamboat Bill,
The +Simpleton(Delille),
Mischief Makers(Carbonara),
Joyful Hurry No. 1+(Baron), and
Gawky Rube(Lakay). A sixth song,
The Turkey in the +Straw,was already in the public domain. Letter from David Smith to Harry Surden, 10 July 2003, on file with author.
Steamboat Bill,that we get Steamboat Willie, and then from Steamboat Willie, Mickey Mouse.
borrowingwas nothing unique, either for Disney or for the industry. Disney was always parroting the feature-length mainstream films of his day.
The Mouse +that Ate the Public Domain,Findlaw, 5 March 2002, at
Disney creativity,though that +would be a bit misleading. It is, more precisely,
Walt Disney +creativity—a form of expression and genius that builds upon the culture around us and makes it something different.
averageterm by determining the weighted average of total registrations for any particular year, and the proportion renewing. Thus, if 100 copyrights are registered in year @@ -1444,15 +1449,15 @@ Web site associated with this book, available at
exclusive rightto control certain uses of the work. To use this copyrighted work in limited ways required the permission of the copyright owner.
lawyer-free +zone.Thus, most of the content from the nineteenth century was free for Disney to use and build upon in 1928. It was free for anyone— whether connected or not, whether rich or not, whether approved or not—to use and build upon. @@ -1471,7 +1476,7 @@ permission. Yet today, the public domain is presumptive only for content from before the Great Depression.
Walt Disney creativity.Nor does America. The norm of free culture has, until recently, and except within totalitarian nations, been broadly exploited and quite universal. @@ -1489,8 +1494,8 @@ extraordinary system of public transportation. Americans tend to look down upon this form of culture. That's an unattractive characteristic of ours. We're likely to misunderstand much about manga, because few of us have ever read anything close to -the stories that these "graphic novels" tell. For the Japanese, manga -cover every aspect of social life. For us, comics are "men in tights." +the stories that these
graphic novelstell. For the Japanese, manga +cover every aspect of social life. For us, comics are
men in tights.And anyway, it's not as if the New York subways are filled with readers of Joyce or even Hemingway. People of different cultures distract themselves in different ways, the Japanese in this @@ -1511,14 +1516,14 @@ transforming it either subtly or significantly. A doujinshi comic can thus take a mainstream comic and develop it differently—with a different story line. Or the comic can keep the character in character but change its look slightly. There is no -formula for what makes the doujinshi sufficiently "different." But they +formula for what makes the doujinshi sufficiently
different.But they must be different if they are to be considered true doujinshi. Indeed, there are committees that review doujinshi for inclusion within shows and reject any copycat comic that is merely a copy.
circlesof creators from across Japan produce these bits of Walt Disney creativity. More than 450,000 Japanese come together twice a year, in the largest public gathering in the country, to exchange and sell them. This market exists in parallel to the @@ -1532,11 +1537,11 @@ The most puzzling feature of the doujinshi market, for those trained in the law, at least, is that it is allowed to exist at all. Under Japanese copyright law, which in this respect (on paper) mirrors American copyright law, the doujinshi market is an illegal -one. Doujinshi are plainly "derivative works." There is no general +one. Doujinshi are plainly
derivative works.There is no general practice by doujinshi artists of securing the permission of the manga creators. Instead, the practice is simply to take and modify the creations of others, as Walt Disney did with
takingwithout the permission of the original copyright owner is illegal. It is an infringement of the original copyright to make a copy or a derivative work without the original copyright owner's permission. @@ -1547,12 +1552,12 @@ work without the original copyright owner's permission.
The early days of comics in America are very much like what's going on in Japan now. … American comics were born out of copying each other. … That's how [the artists] learn to draw—by going into comic -books and not tracing them, but looking at them and copying them" +books and not tracing them, but looking at them and copying themand building from them.
there are these rules +and you have to stick to them.There are things Superman
cannot+do.
As a creator, it's frustrating having to stick to some parameters +which are fifty years old.
Copyright and Comics in Japan: Does Law Explain +Why All the Comics My Kid Watches Are Japanese Imports?
[T]here might be a collective economic rationality that would lead manga and anime artists to forgo bringing legal actions for infringement. One hypothesis is that all manga artists may be better off collectively if they set aside their individual self-interest and decide not to press their legal -rights. This is essentially a prisoner's dilemma solved." +rights. This is essentially a prisoner's dilemma solved.
free takingby the doujinshi culture?
We don't have enough +lawyers,he told me one afternoon. There
just aren't enough resources +to prosecute cases like this.
property.I am one of those celebrants. I believe in the value of property in general, and I also believe in the value of that weird form of property that lawyers call -"intellectual property."
intellectual property.
propertyrights—copyright, patents, trademark, and trade-secret—but the nature of those rights is very different.
propertydoesn't capture. I don't +mean
money can't buy you love,but rather, value that is plainly part of a process of production, including commercial as well as noncommercial production. If Disney animators had stolen a set of pencils to draw Steamboat Willie, we'd have no hesitation in @@ -1653,7 +1658,7 @@ condemning that taking as wrong— even though trivial, even if unnoticed. Yet there was nothing wrong, at least under the law of the day, with Disney's taking from Buster Keaton or from the Brothers Grimm. There was nothing wrong with the taking from Keaton because -Disney's use would have been considered "fair." There was nothing +Disney's use would have been considered
fair.There was nothing wrong with the taking from the Grimms because the Grimms' work was in the public domain.
stealing.This form of Walt Disney creativity is seen as fair and right, even if lawyers in particular find it hard to say why.
Excuse me, Professor Einstein, but may I have permission to use your theory of relativity -to show that you were wrong about quantum physics?") Acting companies +to show that you were wrong about quantum physics?) Acting companies perform adaptations of the works of Shakespeare without securing permission from anyone. (Does
How much, and how broadly, is the culture free for others to take and build upon? Is that freedom limited to party members? To members of the royal family? To the top ten corporations on the New York Stock @@ -1726,14 +1731,14 @@ free culture. It is becoming much less so.How free is this culture?
Mere Copyists
photographs.Appropriately enough, they +were called
daguerreotypes.The process was complicated and expensive, and the field was thus limited to professionals and a few zealous and wealthy amateurs. (There was even an American Daguerre Association that helped regulate the industry, as do all such @@ -1743,8 +1748,8 @@ associations, by keeping competition down so as to keep prices up.)
automatic pictures.William Talbot soon discovered a process for +making
negatives.But because the negatives were glass, and had to be kept wet, the process still remained expensive and cumbersome. In the 1870s, dry plates were developed, making it easier to separate the taking of a picture from its developing. These were still plates of @@ -1770,8 +1775,8 @@ population of photographers.
You press the button and we +do the rest.
For the first time the snapshot album provided the man on the street with a permanent record of his family and its activities. … For the first time in history there exists an authentic visual record of the appearance and activities of the common man made without [literary] -interpretation or bias."+interpretation or bias.
quality; professionals would discount it as irrelevant. But watch a child study how best to frame a picture and you get a sense of the experience of creativity that the Kodak enabled. Democratic tools gave ordinary @@ -1865,7 +1870,7 @@ Dist. Ct. 1894).
takingsomething from the person or building whose photograph he shot—pirating something of value. Some even thought he was taking the target's soul. Just as Disney was not free to take the pencils that his animators used to @@ -1883,7 +1888,7 @@ have the right to capture at least those images that stand in public view. the rule should be different for images from private spaces.
The Right to Privacy,
The Right of Publicity,
Privacy,
theftcommitted by the photographer. Just as Napster benefited from the copyright infringements committed by Napster users, Kodak would be benefiting -from the "image-right" infringement of its photographers. We could +from the
image-rightinfringement of its photographers. We could imagine the law then requiring that some form of permission be demonstrated before a company developed pictures. We could imagine a system developing to demonstrate that permission. @@ -1940,11 +1945,11 @@ that growth would have been realized. And certainly, nothing like that growth in a democratic technology of expression would have been realized. If you drive through San Francisco's Presidio, you might see two gaudy yellow school buses painted over with colorful and -striking images, and the logo "Just Think!" in place of the name of a -school. But there's little that's "just" cerebral in the projects that +striking images, and the logo
Just Think!in place of the name of a +school. But there's little that's
justcerebral in the projects that these busses enable. These buses are filled with technologies that teach kids to tinker with film. Not the film of Eastman. Not even the -film of your VCR. Rather the "film" of digital cameras. Just Think! +film of your VCR. Rather the
filmof digital cameras. Just Think! is a project that enables kids to make films, as a way to understand and critique the filmed culture that they find all around them. Each year, these busses travel to more than thirty schools and enable three @@ -1957,33 +1962,33 @@ learn.
Five years ago, a good real-time digital video editing system cost $25,000. Today you can get -professional quality for $595."+professional quality for $595.
Essential Presentation Tools: Hardware and +Software You Need to Create Digital Multimedia Presentations,cadalyst, February 2002, available at
media literacy.
Media literacy,as Dave Yanofsky, the executive director of Just +Think!, puts it,
is the ability … to understand, analyze, and deconstruct media images. Its aim is to make [kids] literate about the way media works, the way it's constructed, the way it's delivered, and -the way people access it." +the way people access it.
literacy.For most people, literacy is about reading and writing. Faulkner and Hemingway -and noticing split infinitives are the things that "literate" people know +and noticing split infinitives are the things that
literatepeople know about.
Findings on Family and TV +Study,
grammarof media. For just as there is a grammar for the written word, so, too, is there one for media. And just as kids learn how to write by writing lots of terrible prose, kids learn how to write media by constructing lots of @@ -2027,8 +2032,8 @@ California's Annenberg Center for Communication and dean of the USC School of Cinema-Television, explained to me, the grammar was -about "the placement of objects, color, … rhythm, pacing, and -texture."
the placement of objects, color, … rhythm, pacing, and +texture.
playedas well as experienced, that grammar changes. The simple control of narrative is lost, and so other techniques are necessary. Author Michael Crichton had mastered the narrative of science fiction. But when he tried to design a computer game based on one of his @@ -2045,9 +2050,9 @@ works, it was a new craft he had to learn. How to lead people through a game without their feeling they have been led was not obvious, even to a wildly successful author.
Crichton Gets Medieval on PCs,E!online, 4 November 2000, available at -
Timeline,22 November 2000, available at
people are very surprised about how they are led through a film. [I]t is perfectly constructed to keep you from seeing it, so you have no idea. If a filmmaker succeeds you do not know how you were -led." If you know you were led through a film, the film has failed. +led.If you know you were led through a film, the film has failed.
Read-only.Passive recipients of culture produced elsewhere. Couch potatoes. Consumers. This is the world of media from the twentieth century.
empower people to choose the appropriate language for what they need to create or -express."+express.
to communicate in the +language of the twenty-first century.
kids were showing up at 6 A.M. and leaving at 5 at night,said Barish. They were working harder than in any other class to do what education should be about—learning how to express themselves.
free web stuff they could find,and relatively simple +tools to enable the kids to mix
image, sound, and text,Barish said this class produced a series of projects that showed something about gun violence that few would otherwise understand. This was an issue -close to the lives of these students. The project "gave them a tool +close to the lives of these students. The project
gave them a tool and empowered them to be able to both understand it and talk about -it," Barish explained. That tool succeeded in creating +it,Barish explained. That tool succeeded in creating expression—far more successfully and powerfully than could have -been created using only text. "If you had said to these students, `you +been created using only text.
If you had said to these students, `you have to do it in text,' they would've just thrown their hands up and -gone and done something else," Barish described, in part, no doubt, +gone and done something else,Barish described, in part, no doubt, because expressing themselves in text is not something these students can do well. Yet neither is text a form in which
But isn't education about teaching kids to write?I asked. In part, of course, it is. But why are we teaching kids to write? Education, -Daley explained, is about giving students a way of "constructing -meaning." To say that that means just writing is like saying teaching +Daley explained, is about giving students a way of
constructing +meaning.To say that that means just writing is like saying teaching writing is only about teaching kids how to spell. Text is one part—and increasingly, not the most powerful part—of constructing meaning. As Daley explained in the most moving part of @@ -2158,23 +2163,23 @@ Because they can't. You know, you've got Johnny who can look at a video, he can play a video game, he can do graffiti all over your walls, he can take your car apart, and he can do all sorts of other things. He just can't read your text. So Johnny comes to school and -you say, "Johnny, you're illiterate. Nothing you can do matters." +you say,
Johnny, you're illiterate. Nothing you can do matters.Well, Johnny then has two choices: He can dismiss you or he [can] dismiss himself. If his ego is healthy at all, he's going to dismiss -you. [But i]nstead, if you say, "Well, with all these things that you +you. [But i]nstead, if you say,
Well, with all these things that you can do, let's talk about this issue. Play for me music that you think reflects that, or show me images that you think reflect that, or draw -for me something that reflects that." Not by giving a kid a video -camera and … saying, "Let's go have fun with the video camera and -make a little movie." But instead, really help you take these elements +for me something that reflects that.Not by giving a kid a video +camera and … saying,
Let's go have fun with the video camera and +make a little movie.But instead, really help you take these elements that you understand, that are your language, and construct meaning about the topic.…
I need to explain this and I really need +to write something.And as one of the teachers told Stephanie, they would rewrite a paragraph 5, 6, 7, 8 times, till they got it right.
balance,and seriousness. This was news choreographed in the way we have -increasingly come to expect it, "news as entertainment," even if the +increasingly come to expect it,
news as entertainment,even if the entertainment is tragedy.
tragedy of September +11,those of us tied to the Internet came to see a very different production as well. The Internet was filled with accounts of the same events. Yet these Internet accounts had a very different flavor. Some people constructed photo pages that captured images from around the @@ -2228,7 +2235,7 @@ instead to point to a significance in this form of speech. For like a Kodak, the Internet enables people to capture images. And like in a movie -by a student on the "Just Think!" bus, the visual images could be mixed +by a student on the
Just Think!bus, the visual images could be mixed with sound or text.
Democracy in America.It wasn't popular elections that fascinated him—it was the jury, an institution that gave ordinary people the right to choose life or death for other citizens. And most fascinating for him was that the jury didn't just vote about the outcome they would impose. They -deliberated. Members argued about the "right" result; they tried to -persuade each other of the "right" result, and in criminal cases at +deliberated. Members argued about the
rightresult; they tried to +persuade each other of the
rightresult, and in criminal cases at least, they had to agree upon a unanimous result for the process to come to an end.
Deliberation Day,
democratic deliberationto occur.
misspokeat a party for Senator Strom Thurmond, essentially praising Thurmond's segregationist policies, he calculated correctly that this story would disappear from the mainstream press within forty-eight hours. It did. But he didn't calculate its life cycle in blog space. The bloggers kept researching the story. Over time, more and -more instances of the same "misspeaking" emerged. Finally, the story +more instances of the same
misspeakingemerged. Finally, the story broke back into the mainstream press. In the end, Lott was forced to resign as senate majority leader.
With Incessant Postings, a Pundit Stirs the Pot,New York Times, 16 January 2003, G5.
conflict of interest.
I think you +have to take the conflict of interestout of journalism, Winer told me. +
An amateur journalist simply doesn't have a conflict of interest, or the conflict of interest is so easily disclosed that you know you can sort of -get it out of the way." +get it out of the way.
the story.)
amateurnot in the sense of inexperienced, but in the sense of an Olympic athlete, meaning not paid by anyone to give their reports. It allows for a much broader range of input into a story, as reporting on the Columbia disaster revealed, when hundreds from across the southwest United States turned to the Internet to retell what they had seen.
Loss of the Shuttle: The Internet; A Wealth of +Information Online,
Shuttle Disaster Coverage Mixed, but Strong Overall,Online Journalism Review, 2 February 2003, available at
triangulate,as Winer puts it, the truth. Blogs, Winer says, are +
communicating directly with our constituency, and the middle man is +out of it—with all the benefits, and costs, that might entail.
It's going to become an essential skill,Winer predicts, for public figures and increasingly for private figures as well. It's -not clear that "journalism" is happy about this—some journalists +not clear that
journalismis happy about this—some journalists have been told to curtail their blogging.
Does an Editor's Pencil Ruin a Web Log?
Not all news organizations have been as accepting of employees who blog. Kevin Sites, a CNN correspondent in Iraq who started a blog about his reporting of the war on March 9, stopped posting 12 days later at his bosses' request. Last year Steve Olafson, a)Houston Chronicle reporter, was fired for keeping a personal Web log, published under a pseudonym, -that dealt with some of the issues and people he was covering.") +that dealt with some of the issues and people he was covering.
A -lot of what we are doing now is warm-up exercises," Winer told me. +lot of what we are doing now is warm-up exercises,Winer told me. There is a lot that must mature before this space has its mature effect. And as the inclusion of content in this space is the least infringing use -of the Internet (meaning infringing on copyright), Winer said, "we will -be the last thing that gets shut down." +of the Internet (meaning infringing on copyright), Winer said,
we will +be the last thing that gets shut down.
you +don't have to work for somebody who controls, [for] a gatekeeper.That is true. But it affects democracy in another way as well. As more and more citizens express what they think, and defend it in writing, that will change the way people understand public issues. It @@ -2477,8 +2484,8 @@ extraordinary to report.
human learning and … the +creation of knowledge ecologies for creating … innovation.
a lot of us grew up,+he explains, that tinkering was done
on motorcycle engines, lawnmower +engines, automobiles, radios, and so on.But digital technologies enable a different kind of tinkering—with abstract ideas though in concrete form. The kids at Just Think! not only think about how a commercial portrays a politician; using digital technology, they can take the commercial apart and manipulate it, tinker with it to see how it does what it does. Digital technologies launch a kind of bricolage, -or "free collage," as Brown calls it. Many get to add to or transform +or
free collage,as Brown calls it. Many get to add to or transform the tinkering of many others.
completely new kind of learning platform,+as Brown describes.
As soon as you start doing that, you … unleash a free collage on the community, so that other people can start looking at your code, tinkering with it, trying it out, seeing -if they can improve it." Each effort is a kind of -apprenticeship. "Open source becomes a major apprenticeship platform." +if they can improve it.Each effort is a kind of +apprenticeship.
Open source becomes a major apprenticeship platform.
the concrete things you tinker with are abstract. +They are code.Kids are
shifting to the ability to tinker in the abstract, and this tinkering is no longer an isolated activity that you're doing in your garage. You are tinkering with a community platform. … You are tinkering with other people's stuff. The more -you tinker the more you improve." The more you improve, the more you +you tinker the more you improve.The more you improve, the more you learn.
the Web [is] the first medium that truly honors multiple forms of +intelligence.Earlier technologies, such as the typewriter or word processors, helped amplify text. But the Web amplifies much more than -text. "The Web … says if you are musical, if you are artistic, if +text.
The Web … says if you are musical, if you are artistic, if you are visual, if you are interested in film … [then] there is a lot you can start to do on this medium. [It] can now amplify and honor -these multiple forms of intelligence." +these multiple forms of intelligence.
right to +tinkeras it applies to computer science and to knowledge in general.
Technological Access +Control Interferes with Noninfringing Scholarship,
This is where education in the twenty-first century is going,Brown +explains. We need to
understand how kids who grow up digital think +and want to learn.
Yet,as Brown continued, and as the balance of this book will +evince,
we are building a legal system that completely suppresses the natural tendencies of today's digital kids. … We're building an architecture that unleashes 60 percent of the brain [and] a legal -system that closes down that part of the brain." +system that closes down that part of the brain.
No way to run a culture,as Brewster Kahle, whom we'll meet in chapter
intranetsearch engines, search engines that search within the network of a particular institution, is to provide users of that institution with better access to material from that institution. Businesses do this all the @@ -2696,12 +2703,12 @@ the suit. As he read these papers and watched the news reports about them, he was increasingly astonished.
It was absurd,he told me.
I don't think I did anything wrong. … I don't think there's anything wrong with the search engine that I ran or … what I had done to it. I mean, I hadn't modified it in any way that promoted or enhanced the work of pirates. I just modified the search engine in a way that would make it -easier to use"—again, a—again, asearch engine , +easier to use
willfullyviolated copyright laws. They demanded that he pay them the damages for his wrong. For cases of -"willful infringement," the Copyright Act specifies something lawyers -call "statutory damages." These damages permit a copyright owner to +
willful infringement,the Copyright Act specifies something lawyers +call
statutory damages.These damages permit a copyright owner to claim $150,000 per infringement. As the RIAA alleged more than one hundred specific copyright infringements, they therefore demanded that Jesse pay them at least $15,000,000. @@ -2724,7 +2731,7 @@ Similar lawsuits were brought against three other students: one other student at RPI, one at Michigan Technical University, and one at Princeton. Their situations were similar to Jesse's. Though each case was different in detail, the bottom line in each was exactly the same: -huge demands for "damages" that the RIAA claimed it was entitled to. +huge demands for
damagesthat the RIAA claimed it was entitled to. If you added up the claims, these four lawsuits were asking courts in the United States to award the plaintiffs close to $100
Recording Industry Goes After Campus P-2-P Networks: +Suit Alleges $97.8 Billion in Damages,
You don't want to pay another +visit to a dentist like me.) And throughout, the RIAA insisted it would not settle the case until it took every penny Jesse had saved.
KaZaA and Punishment,
considers himself very conservative, and so do I. … He's not a tree hugger. … I think it's bizarre that they would pick on him. But he wants to let people know that they're sending the -wrong message. And he wants to correct the record." +wrong message. And he wants to correct the record.
Pirates
piracymeans using the creative property of others without +their permission—if
if value, then rightis true—then the history of the content industry is a history of piracy. Every important sector of -"big media" today—film, records, radio, and cable TV—was born of a +
big mediatoday—film, records, radio, and cable TV—was born of a kind of piracy so defined. The consistent story is how last generation's pirates join this generation's country club—until now.
adventureswith copyright and patent.
trust,the Motion Pictures Patents Company, and were based on Thomas Edison's creative property—patents. Edison formed the MPPC to exercise the rights this creative property @@ -2871,13 +2878,13 @@ license was revoked.
The Edison Movie Monopoly: The Motion Picture Patents +Company vs. the Independent Outlaws,available at
From Edison to the Broadcast Flag: Mechanisms of Consent and Refusal and -the Propertization of Copyright" (September 2002), University of +the Propertization of Copyright(September 2002), University of Chicago Law School, James M. Olin Program in Law and Economics, Working Paper No. 159.
independents,were companies like Fox. And no less than today, these independents were vigorously -resisted. "Shooting was disrupted by machinery stolen, and +resisted.
Shooting was disrupted by machinery stolen, and `accidents' resulting in loss of negatives, equipment, buildings and -sometimes life and limb frequently occurred."+sometimes life and limb frequently occurred.
The First Studios,
limitedmonopoly (just seventeen years at that time), by the time enough federal marshals appeared, the patents had @@ -2928,19 +2935,19 @@ for reproducing music (Edison the phonograph, Fourneaux the player piano), the law gave composers the exclusive right to control copies of their music and the exclusive right to control public performances of their music. In other words, in 1900, if I wanted a copy of Phil Russel's -1899 hit "Happy Mose," the law said I would have to pay for the right +1899 hit
Happy Mose,the law said I would have to pay for the right to get a copy of the musical score, and I would also have to pay for the right to perform it publicly.
Happy Mose,using Edison's phonograph or Fourneaux's player piano? Here the law stumbled. It was clear enough that I would have to buy any copy of the musical score that I performed in making this recording. And it was clear enough that I would have to pay for any public performance of the work I was recording. But it wasn't totally clear that I would have to pay for a -"public performance" if I recorded the song in my own house (even +
public performanceif I recorded the song in my own house (even today, you don't owe the Beatles anything if you sing their songs in the shower), or if I recorded the song from memory (copies in your brain are not—yet— regulated by copyright law). So if I @@ -2980,21 +2987,21 @@ Hackensack, N.J.: Rothman Reprints, 1976).
sponging upon the toil, the work, the talent, and +genius of American composers,
music publishing industry+was thereby
at the complete mercy of this one pirate.
When they make money +out of my pieces, I want a share of it.
it is perfectly demonstrable that the introduction of automatic music players has not deprived any composer -of anything he had before their introduction." Rather, the machines +of anything he had before their introduction.Rather, the machines increased the sales of sheet music.
to consider first the interest of [the public], whom +they represent, and whose servants they are.
All talk about +`theft,'the general counsel of the American Graphophone Company +wrote,
is the merest claptrap, for there exists no property in ideas musical, literary or artistic, except as defined by -statute."+statute.
mechanical +reproductionsof their music. But rather than simply granting the composer complete control over the right to make mechanical reproductions, Congress gave recording artists a right to record the music, at a price set by Congress, once the composer allowed it to be @@ -3042,8 +3049,8 @@ authorizes a recording of his song, others are free to record the same song, so long as they pay the original composer a fee set by the law.
compulsory license,but I will +refer to it as a
statutory license.A statutory license is a license whose key terms are set by law. After Congress's amendment of the Copyright Act in 1909, record companies were free to distribute copies of recordings so long as they paid the composer (or copyright holder) @@ -3123,17 +3130,17 @@ Radio was also born of piracy.
public performanceof the composer's work.
Not Licensed for Radio Broadcastand other messages purporting to restrict the ability to play a record on a radio station. Judge Learned Hand rejected the argument that a warning attached to a record might restrict the rights of the radio station. See
From Edison to the Broadcast Flag: Mechanisms of Consent and Refusal and the Propertization of -Copyright,"University of Chicago Law Review 70 (2003): 281. +Copyright,
Happy Birthdaysung on the radio by the local children's choir; it's quite another to have it sung by the Rolling Stones or Lyle Lovett. The recording artist is adding to the value of the composition performed on the radio station. And if the @@ -3179,7 +3186,7 @@ then decides to make a recording of your song, and it becomes a top hit. Under our law, every time a radio station plays your song, you get some money. But Madonna gets nothing, save the indirect effect on the sale of her CDs. The public performance of her recording is not a -"protected" right. The radio station thus gets to +
protectedright. The radio station thus gets to
unfair and potentially destructive competition.
public interestin spreading the reach of cable TV, but as Douglas Anello, general counsel to the National Association -of Broadcasters, asked Senator Quentin Burdick during testimony, "Does public -interest dictate that you use somebody else's property?"
Does public +interest dictate that you use somebody else's property?
free-ride[rs],Screen Actor's Guild president Charlton +Heston said, who were
depriving actors of +compensation.
pirated.In the end, Congress resolved this question in the same way that it resolved the question about record players and player pianos. Yes, cable companies would have to pay for the content that they broadcast; but the price they would have to pay was not set by the copyright owner. The price was set by law, so that the broadcasters couldn't exercise veto power over the emerging technologies of cable. Cable -companies thus built their empire in part upon a "piracy" of the value +companies thus built their empire in part upon a
piracyof the value created by broadcasters' content.
piracymeans using value from someone else's creative property without permission from that creator—as it is increasingly described today
The threat of piracy—the use of someone else's creative work without -permission or compensation—has grown with the Internet." +permission or compensation—has grown with the Internet.
Piracy
takingthat is more directly related to the Internet. That taking, too, seems wrong to many, and it is wrong much of the time. Before we paint this -taking "piracy," however, we should understand its nature a bit more. +taking
piracy,however, we should understand its nature a bit more. For the harm of this taking is significantly more ambiguous than outright copying, and the law should account for that ambiguity, as it has so often done in the past. @@ -3366,7 +3373,7 @@ every year to physical piracy
Companies Warned on Music Piracy Risk,
In some instances … the impact of piracy on the copyright holder's ability to appropriate the value of the work will be negligible. One obvious instance is the case where the individual engaging in pirating would not have purchased an original even if -pirating were not an option." Ibid., 149. +pirating were not an option.Ibid., 149.
You wouldn't go into Barnes & Noble and take a book off of the shelf +without paying; why should it be any different with on-line music?The difference is, of course, that when you take a book from Barnes & Noble, it has one less book to sell. By contrast, when you take an MP3 from a computer network, there is not one less CD that can be sold. @@ -3470,7 +3479,7 @@ owner the right to decide the terms under which content is shared. If the copyright owner doesn't want to sell, she doesn't have to. There are exceptions: important statutory licenses that apply to copyrighted content regardless of the wish of the copyright owner. Those licenses -give people the right to "take" copyrighted content whether or not the +give people the right to
takecopyrighted content whether or not the copyright owner wants to sell. But @@ -3478,11 +3487,11 @@ where the law does not give people the right to take content, it is wrong to take that content even if the wrong does no harm. If we have a property system, and that system is properly balanced to the technology of a time, then it is wrong to take property without the -permission of a property owner. That is exactly what "property" means. +permission of a property owner. That is exactly what
propertymeans.
stealWindows, that makes the Chinese dependent on Microsoft. Microsoft loses the value of the software that was taken. But it gains users who are used to life in the Microsoft world. Over time, as the nation @@ -3538,12 +3547,12 @@ is flat out wrong.
piracyis. Or +at least, not all
piracyis wrong if that term is understood in the +way it is increasingly used today. Many kinds of
piracyare useful and productive, to produce either new content or new ways of doing business. Neither our tradition nor any tradition has ever banned all -"piracy" in that sense of the term. +
piracyin that sense of the term.
piracythat the law aims to quash is a use that
rob[s] +the author of [his] profit.
Silicon Valley Dream, Hollywood Nightmare,
Rock 'n' Roll Suicide,+
Napster Names CEO, +Secures New Financing,
Napster's Wake-Up Call,
Hollywood at War with the Internet(London)
Industry Offers a Carrot in Online Music Fight,
takenon these networks. The ease and inexpensiveness of file-sharing networks have inspired millions to enjoy music in a way that they hadn't before.
recallingold songs. She was astonished at the range and mix of content that was available.) For content not sold, this is still technically a violation of copyright, though because the copyright owner is not @@ -3727,23 +3736,23 @@ Whether on balance sharing is harmful depends importantly on how harmful type A sharing is. Just as Edison complained about Hollywood, composers complained about piano rolls, recording artists complained about radio, and broadcasters complained about cable TV, the music -industry complains that type A sharing is a kind of "theft" that is -"devastating" the industry. +industry complains that type A sharing is a kind of
theftthat is +
devastatingthe industry.
Rather than exploiting this new, popular +technology, the labels fought it.
Home taping +is killing music.At the time digital audio tape became a threat, the Office of Technical Assessment conducted a survey of consumer behavior. In 1988, 40 percent of consumers older than ten had taped music to a cassette format. U.S. Congress, Office of Technology @@ -3758,11 +3767,11 @@ regulating technology was the answer.
In the end,Cap Gemini concludes,
the `crisis' … was not the fault of the tapers—who did not [stop after MTV came into being]—but had to a large extent resulted from stagnation in musical -innovation at the major labels."+innovation at the major labels.
net harmto the industry as a whole is the amount by which type A sharing exceeds type B. If the record companies sold more records through sampling than they lost through substitution, then sharing networks would actually benefit music companies on balance. They would @@ -3804,35 +3813,35 @@ available at report indicates even greater losses. See Recording Industry Association of America,
In the past four years, unit shipments of recorded music have fallen by 26 percent from 1.16 billion units in to 860 million units in 2002 in the United States (based on units shipped). In terms of sales, revenues are down 14 percent, from $14.6 billion in to $12.6 billion last year (based on U.S. dollar value of shipments). The music industry worldwide has gone from a $39 billion industry in 2000 down to a $32 billion industry in 2002 (based on U.S. dollar value of -shipments)." +shipments).
From 1999 to 2001, the average +price of a CD rose 7.2 percent, from $13.04 to $14.19.
Big Music's Broken Record,BusinessWeek online, 13 February 2003, available at
The soundtrack to the filmHigh Fidelity has a list price of $18.98. You could get the whole movie [on DVD] for -$19.99."+$19.99.
What's the difference between +downloading a song and stealing a CD?—but their own numbers reveal the difference. If I steal a CD, then there is one less CD to sell. Every taking is a lost sale. But on the basis of the numbers the RIAA provides, it is absolutely clear that the same is not true of downloads. If every download were a lost sale—if every use of -Kazaa "rob[bed] the author of [his] profit"—then the industry +Kazaa
rob[bed] the author of [his] profit—then the industry would have suffered a 100 percent drop in sales last year, not a 7 percent drop. If 2.6 times the number of CDs sold were downloaded for free, and yet sales revenue dropped by just 6.7 percent, then there is -a huge difference between "downloading a song and stealing a CD." +a huge difference between
downloading a song and stealing a CD.
2002 Annual Survey + Results,available at
Two Love Songs,I still have it. That difference would matter economically if the owner of the copyright were selling the record in competition to my sharing. But we're talking about the class of content that is not @@ -3947,7 +3956,7 @@ the Magic Kingdom, both free on-line and in bookstores on the same day. His (and his publisher's) thinking was that the on-line distribution -would be a great advertisement for the "real" book. People would read +would be a great advertisement for the
realbook. People would read part on-line, and then decide whether they liked the book or not. If they liked it, they would be more likely to buy it. Doctorow's content is type D content. If sharing networks enable his work to be spread, then @@ -3962,14 +3971,14 @@ lose something important in order to protect type A content.
This is how much we've lost,we must also ask, +
How much has society gained from p2p sharing? What are the efficiencies? What is the content that otherwise would be -unavailable?" +unavailable?
piracythat file sharing enables is plainly legal and good. And like the piracy I described in chapter
But isn't the war just a war against illegal sharing? Isn't the target +just what you call type A sharing?
down to zero.
mechanical reproductionthreatened the interests of composers, Congress balanced the rights of composers against the interests of the recording industry. It granted rights to composers, but also to the recording artists: Composers were to be paid, but at a price set by Congress. But when radio started broadcasting the recordings made by these recording artists, and they -complained to Congress that their "creative property" was not being +complained to Congress that their
creative propertywas not being respected (since the radio station did not have to pay them for the creativity it broadcast), Congress rejected their claim. An indirect benefit was enough. @@ -4076,7 +4085,7 @@ them today, VCRs) that Sony had produced, the Betamax. Disney's and Universal's claim against Sony was relatively simple: Sony produced a device, Disney and Universal claimed, that enabled consumers to engage in copyright infringement. Because the device that Sony built had a -"record" button, the device could be used to record copyrighted movies +
recordbutton, the device could be used to record copyrighted movies and shows. Sony was therefore benefiting from the copyright infringement of its customers. It should therefore, Disney and Universal claimed, be partially liable for that infringement. @@ -4086,7 +4095,7 @@ There was something to Disney's and Universal's claim. Sony did decide to design its machine to make it very simple to record television shows. It could have built the machine to block or inhibit any direct copying from a television broadcast. Or possibly, it could have built the -machine to copy only if there were a special "copy me" signal on the +machine to copy only if there were a special
copy mesignal on the line. It was clear that there were many television shows that did not grant anyone permission to copy. Indeed, if anyone had asked, no doubt the majority of shows would not have authorized copying. And @@ -4098,23 +4107,23 @@ for the architecture it chose.
tapeworms.He warned,
When there are 20, 30, 40 million of these VCRs in the land, we will be invaded by millions of `tapeworms,' eating away at the very heart and essence of the most precious asset the copyright owner has, his -copyright."+copyright.
One does not have to be trained in sophisticated marketing and +creative judgment,he told Congress,
to understand the devastation on the after-theater marketplace caused by the hundreds of millions of tapings that will adversely impact on the future of the creative community in this country. It is simply a question of basic economics -and plain common sense."+and plain common sense.
fair.By +
allowing VCR owners to copy freely by the means of an exemption from copyright infringementwithout creating a mechanism to compensate -copyrightowners," Valenti testified, Congress would "take from the +copyrightowners,Valenti testified, Congress would
take from the owners the very essence of their property: the exclusive right to control who may use their work, that is, who may copy it and thereby -profit from its reproduction."+profit from its reproduction.
Hollywood +Circuit—held that Sony would be liable for the copyright infringement made possible by its machines. Under the Ninth Circuit's rule, this totally familiar technology—which Jack Valenti had -called "the Boston Strangler of the American film industry" (worse +called
the Boston Strangler of the American film industry(worse yet, it was a
takingnotwithstanding. If we put these cases together, a pattern is clear:
PIRATED
From Edison to the Broadcast Flag,
free rideon someone else's work.
piracy.In every case, Congress acted to recognize some of the legitimacy in -the behavior of the "pirates." In each case, Congress allowed some new +the behavior of the
pirates.In each case, Congress allowed some new technology to benefit from content made before. It balanced the interests at stake. @@ -4272,8 +4281,8 @@ permission to record a song?
has never accorded the copyright owner complete control +over all possible uses of his work.
stealingfrom artists. But neither should the law become a tool to entrench one particular way in which artists (or more accurately, distributors) get paid. As I describe in some detail in the last chapter of this book, we should be securing @@ -4306,33 +4315,34 @@ This is especially true when a new technology enables a vastly superior mode of distribution. And this p2p has done. P2p technologies can be ideally efficient in moving content across a widely diverse network. Left to develop, they could make the network vastly more -efficient. Yet these "potential public benefits," as John Schwartz -writes in
potential public benefits,as John Schwartz +writes in
could be delayed in the P2P +fight.
New Economy: The Attack on Peer-to-Peer Software +Echoes Past Efforts,
balance,the copyright warriors +raise a different argument.
All this hand waving about balance and +incentives,they say,
misses a fundamental point. Our content,the +warriors insist,
is ourproperty . Why should we wait for Congress to `rebalance' our property rights? Do you have to wait before calling the police when your car has been stolen? And why should Congress deliberate at all about the merits of this theft? Do we ask whether the car thief had a good use for the car before we -arrest him?" +arrest him?
It isthe warriors +insist.our property ,
And it should be protected just as any other property +is protected.
PROPERTY
propertyright is a bit misleading, for the property of copyright is an odd kind of property. Indeed, the very idea of property in any idea or any expression is very odd. I understand what I am taking when I take the @@ -4365,9 +4375,9 @@ range of exceptions—ideas released to the world are free. I don't take anything from you when I copy the way you dress—though I might seem weird if I did it every day, and especially weird if you are a woman. Instead, as Thomas Jefferson said (and as is especially true -when I copy the way someone else dresses), "He who receives an idea +when I copy the way someone else dresses),
He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who -lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me."+lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.
propertyin its proper context.
What Is Property? Putting the Pieces Back Together,
copyright material is propertyin context. Where did the idea come from? What are its limits? How does it function in practice? After these stories, the significance of this true -statement—"copyright material is property"— will be a bit +statement—
copyright material is property— will be a bit more clear, and its implications will be revealed as quite different from the implications that the copyright warriors would have us draw.
I liked it, but Shakespeare +is so full of clichés.
copy-rightfor the work was still thought by many to be the exclusive right of a single London publisher, Jacob Tonson.
definitive editionsof classic works. In addition to
Jacob Tonson, +Bookseller,
copyof books that they had acquired from authors. That perpetual right meant that no @@ -4456,28 +4466,28 @@ produce better or cheaper editions was eliminated. Now, there's something puzzling about the year 1774 to anyone who knows a little about copyright law. The better-known year in the history of copyright is 1710, the year that the British Parliament -adopted the first "copyright" act. Known as the Statute of Anne, the +adopted the first
copyrightact. Known as the Statute of Anne, the act stated that all published works would get a copyright term of fourteen years, renewable once if the author was alive, and that all works already published by 1710 would get a single term of twenty-one additional years.
copyright law.See Vaidhyanathan,
copyrightwas—indeed, no one had. At the time the English passed the Statute of Anne, there was no other legislation governing copyrights. The last law regulating publishers, the Licensing Act of 1662, had expired in 1695. That law gave publishers a monopoly over publishing, as a way to make it easier for the Crown to control what was published. But after it expired, there was no positive law that said -that the publishers, or "Stationers," had an exclusive right to print +that the publishers, or
Stationers,had an exclusive right to print books.
positive law.We call the words from judges +
common law.The common law sets the background against which legislatures legislate; the legislature, ordinarily, can trump that background only if it passes a law to displace it. And so the real question after the licensing statutes had expired was whether the common law protected a copyright, independent of any positive law.
booksellers,as they were called, because there was growing competition from foreign publishers. The Scottish, in particular, were increasingly publishing and exporting books to England. That competition reduced the profits @@ -4506,11 +4516,11 @@ to again give them exclusive control over publishing. That demand resulted in the Statute of Anne.
proprietorof a book an exclusive right to print that book. In an important limitation, however, and to the horror of the booksellers, the law gave the bookseller that right for a limited term. At the end of that term, the -copyright "expired," and the work would then be free and could be +copyright
expired,and the work would then be free and could be published by anyone. Or so the legislature is thought to have believed.
stealShakespeare's work?
copyrightthat existed at the time of the Statute of Anne. Second, we have to see something important about -"booksellers." +
booksellers.
copyrightever more broadly. But in 1710, it wasn't so much a concept as it was a very particular right. The copyright was born as a very specific set of restrictions: It forbade -others from reprinting a book. In 1710, the "copy-right" was a right +others from reprinting a book. In 1710, the
copy-rightwas a right to use a particular machine to replicate a particular work. It did not go beyond that very narrow right. It did not control any more generally how @@ -4559,14 +4569,14 @@ term was that no one could reprint Shakespeare's work without the permission of the Shakespeare estate. It would not have controlled anything, for example, about how the work could be performed, whether the work could be translated, or whether Kenneth Branagh would be -allowed to make his films. The "copy-right" was only an exclusive +allowed to make his films. The
copy-rightwas only an exclusive right to print—no less, of course, but also no more.
exclusive rights,+especially
exclusive rightsgranted by the Crown. The English had fought a civil war in part about the Crown's practice of handing out monopolies—especially monopolies for works that already existed. King Henry VIII granted a patent to print the Bible and a @@ -4577,11 +4587,11 @@ inventions. And by 1710, Parliament was eager to deal with the growing monopoly in publishing.
copy-right,when viewed as a monopoly right, was naturally viewed as a right that should be limited. (However convincing the -claim that "it's my property, and I should have it forever," try -sounding convincing when uttering, "It's my monopoly, and I should -have it forever.") The state would protect the exclusive right, but +claim that
it's my property, and I should have it forever,try +sounding convincing when uttering,
It's my monopoly, and I should +have it forever.) The state would protect the exclusive right, but only so long as it benefited society. The British saw the harms from specialinterest favors; they passed a law to stop them.
old patentees +and monopolizers in the trade of book-selling; they were
men who do not therefore labour in an honest profession to which learning is -indetted."+indetted.
propertyand use it without his permission. The Statute of Anne, the booksellers argued, didn't change that. Therefore, just because the protections of the Statute of Anne expired, that didn't mean the protections of the common law expired: Under the common law @@ -4679,10 +4689,10 @@ way to protect authors. This was a clever argument, and one that had the support of some of the leading jurists of the day. It also displayed extraordinary chutzpah. Until then, as law professor Raymond Patterson has put it, -"The publishers … had as much concern for authors as a cattle -rancher has for cattle."
The publishers … had as much concern for authors as a cattle +rancher has for cattle.
Free Speech, Copyright, and Fair Use,
of standard works whose copyright term had expired,at least under the Statute of Anne.
something of a center for literary Scotsmen.
[A]mong +them,Professor Mark Rose writes, was
the young James Boswell who, together with his friend Andrew Erskine, published an anthology -of contemporary Scottish poems with Donaldson."+of contemporary Scottish poems with Donaldson.
of the most popular English books, in defiance of the supposed common law right of Literary -Property."+Property.
piracylike +Donaldson's. A number of actions were successful against the
pirates,the most important early victory being
The Seasons.Millar complied with the requirements of the Statute of Anne, and therefore received the full protection of the statute. After the term of copyright ended, Robert Taylor began printing a competing volume. Millar sued, claiming a perpetual common law right, the Statute of Anne notwithstanding.
The Historic Foundation of American Copyright Law: +Exploding the Myth of Common Law Copyright,
pirates.Mansfield's answer was yes: The common law would bar Taylor from reprinting Thomson's poem without Millar's permission. That common law rule thus effectively gave the booksellers a perpetual right to @@ -4813,7 +4823,7 @@ protected by the statute were no longer protected.
law lords,members of special legal distinction who functioned much like the Justices in our Supreme Court. Then, after the law lords voted, the House of Lords generally voted. @@ -4829,7 +4839,7 @@ fixed for a limited time, after which the work protected by copyright passed into the public domain.
The public domain.Before the case of
pirate publishersdid their work, people celebrated the decision in the streets. As the
No private cause has so much engrossed the attention of the public, and none has been tried before the House of Lords in the -decision of which so many individuals were interested." "Great +decision of which so many individuals were interested.
Great rejoicing in Edinburgh upon victory over literary property: bonfires -and illuminations."+and illuminations.
Ruinedis a bit of an exaggeration. But it is not an exaggeration to say that the change was profound. The decision of the House of Lords meant that the booksellers could no longer control how culture in England would grow and develop. Culture in England was thereafter @@ -4944,7 +4954,7 @@ Years later, when he finally got funding to complete the film, Else attempted to clear the rights for those few seconds of
fair useor some other privilege applies.
two things happened. First we discovered … that Matt Groening doesn't own his own creation—or at -least that someone [at Fox] believes he doesn't own his own creation." -And second, Fox "wanted ten thousand dollars as a licensing fee for us +least that someone [at Fox] believes he doesn't own his own creation.+And second, Fox
wanted ten thousand dollars as a licensing fee for us to use this four-point-five seconds of … entirely unsolicited -Simpsons which was in the corner of the shot." +Simpsons which was in the corner of the shot.
There must be some mistake here. … We're +asking for your educational rate on this.That was the educational rate, Herrera told Else. A day or so later, Else called again to confirm what he had been told.
I wanted to make sure I had my facts straight,he told me.
Yes, you +have your facts straight,she said. It would cost $10,000 to use the clip of
And +if you quote me, I'll turn you over to our attorneys.As an assistant +to Herrera told Else later on,
They don't give a shit. They just want +the money.
public performanceis a use of
My +Favoritethen you need to get permission from the copyright owner. And the copyright owner (rightly, in my view) can charge whatever she wants—$10 or $1,000,000. That's her right, as set by the law.Simpsons ,
fair use.
fair use,but that +lawyers don't permit recognition that it is
fair use,see Richard +A. Posner with William F. Patry,
Fair Use and Statutory Reform in the +Wake of(draft on file with author), University of Chicago Law School, 5 August 2003.Eldred
fair use.Here's his reply:
The Simpsons fiasco was for me a great lesson in the gulf between what lawyers find irrelevant in some abstract sense, and what is crushingly relevant in practice to those of us actually trying to make and -broadcast documentaries. I never had any doubt that it was "clearly -fair use" in an absolute legal sense. But I couldn't rely on the +broadcast documentaries. I never had any doubt that it wasclearly +fair usein an absolute legal sense. But I couldn't rely on the concept in any concrete way. Here's why:@@ -5052,9 +5062,9 @@ concept in any concrete way. Here's why: Before our films can be broadcast, the network requires that we buy Errors and Omissions insurance. The carriers require a detailed -"visual cue sheet" listing the source and licensing status of each -shot in the film. They take a dim view of "fair use," and a claim of -"fair use" can grind the application process to a halt. + visual cue sheetlisting the source and licensing status of each +shot in the film. They take a dim view offair use,and a claim of +fair usecan grind the application process to a halt.
depose and litigate you to within an inch of your +life,regardless of the merits of my claim. He made clear that it would boil down to who had the bigger legal department and the deeper pockets, me or them. @@ -5143,30 +5153,30 @@ relatively easy to get permission for that content.
Our goal was that we were going to have a clip from every one of -Eastwood's films," Alben told me. It was here that the problem -arose. "No one had ever really done this before," Alben explained. "No +Eastwood's films,Alben told me. It was here that the problem +arose.
No one had ever really done this before,Alben explained.
No one had ever tried to do this in the context of an artistic look at an -actor's career." +actor's career.
Well, what will it take?
Well, we're going to have to clear rights from everyone who appears in these films, and the music and everything -else that we want to use in these film clips." Slade said, "Great! Go -for it."Slade said,+else that we want to use in these film clips.
Great! Go +for it.
Rip, Mix, +Burncreativity, as this chapter evinces.
Make my dayclip from
Hey, can I pay you $600 or maybe if you were in two films, you +know, $1,200?And they would say,
Are you for real? Hey, I'd love +to get $1,200.And some of course were a bit difficult (estranged ex-wives, in particular). But eventually, Alben and his team had cleared the rights to this retrospective CD-ROM on Clint Eastwood's career.
and even then we +weren't sure whether we were totally in the clear.
@@ -5251,9 +5261,9 @@ loved it, and it sold very well.Everyone thought it would be too hard. Everyone just threw up their -hands and said, "Oh, my gosh, a film, it's so many copyrights, there's +hands and said, Oh, my gosh, a film, it's so many copyrights, there's the music, there's the screenplay, there's the director, there's the -actors." But we just broke it down. We just put it into its -constituent parts and said, "Okay, there's this many actors, this many -directors, … this many musicians," and we just went at it very +actors.But we just broke it down. We just put it into its +constituent parts and said,Okay, there's this many actors, this many +directors, … this many musicians,and we just went at it very systematically and cleared the rights.
There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done -at all."+at all.
very few … have the time and resources, +and the will to do this,and thus, very few such works would ever be made. Does it make sense, I asked him, from the standpoint of what anybody really thought they were ever giving rights for originally, that you would have to go clear rights for these kinds of clips? @@ -5303,10 +5313,10 @@ cost. That's the thing that trips everybody up and makes this kind of product hard to get off the ground. If you knew I have a hundred minutes of film in this product and it's going to cost me X, then you build your budget around it, and you can get investments and -everything else that you need to produce it. But if you say, "Oh, I +everything else that you need to produce it. But if you say,
Oh, I want a hundred minutes of something and I have no idea what it's going to cost me, and a certain number of people are going to hold me up for -money," then it becomes difficult to put one of these things together. +money,then it becomes difficult to put one of these things together.
Does this still make sense?
Do you know how many federal laws +were just violated in this room?
cut and pasteculture enabled by technology. Anyone building a presentation knows the extraordinary freedom that the cut and paste architecture of the Internet created—in a second you can find just about any image you want; in another second, you can have it @@ -5389,7 +5399,7 @@ through the mixing of Flash! and music.
legal,the cost of complying with the law is impossibly high. Therefore, for the law-abiding sorts, a wealth of creativity is never made. And for that part that is made, if it doesn't follow the clearance rules, it doesn't get released. @@ -5398,13 +5408,13 @@ clearance rules, it doesn't get released. To some, these stories suggest a solution: Let's alter the mix of rights so that people are free to build upon our culture. Free to add or mix as they see fit. We could even make this change without -necessarily requiring that the "free" use be free as in "free beer." +necessarily requiring that the
freeuse be free as in
free beer.Instead, the system could simply make it easy for follow-on creators to compensate artists without requiring an army of lawyers to come -along: a rule, for example, that says "the royalty owed the copyright +along: a rule, for example, that says
the royalty owed the copyright owner of an unregistered work for the derivative reuse of his work will be a flat 1 percent of net revenues, to be held in escrow for the -copyright owner." Under this rule, the copyright owner could benefit +copyright owner.Under this rule, the copyright owner could benefit from some royalty, but he would not have the benefit of a full property right (meaning the right to name his own price) unless he registers the work. @@ -5420,21 +5430,21 @@ In February 2003, DreamWorks studios announced an agreement with Mike Myers, the comic genius of
unique filmmaking pact.Under the +agreement, DreamWorks
will acquire the rights to existing motion picture hits and classics, write new storylines and—with the use of stateof-the-art digital technology—insert Myers and other actors into the film, thereby creating an entirely new piece of -entertainment." +entertainment.
film sampling.As Myers explained, +
Film Sampling is an exciting way to put an original spin on existing films and allow audiences to see old movies in a new light. Rap artists have been doing this for years with music and now we are able -to take that same concept and apply it to film." Steven Spielberg is -quoted as saying, "If anyone can create a way to bring old films to -new audiences, it is Mike." +to take that same concept and apply it to film.Steven Spielberg is +quoted as saying,
If anyone can create a way to bring old films to +new audiences, it is Mike.
fair use.+Much of
samplingshould be considered
fair use.But few would rely upon so weak a doctrine to create. That leads to the second reason that the privilege is reserved for the few: The costs of negotiating the legal rights for the creative reuse of content are astronomically high. @@ -5464,8 +5474,8 @@ curse, reserved for the few.
bots—computer codes designed to +
spider,or automatically search the Internet and copy content—began running across the Net. Page by page, these bots copied Internet-based information onto a small set of computers located in a basement in San Francisco's Presidio. Once the bots finished the whole of the Internet, @@ -5476,7 +5486,7 @@ bits of code took copies of the Internet and stored them. By October 2001, the bots had collected more than five years of copies. And at a small announcement in Berkeley, California, the archive that these copies created, the Internet Archive, was opened to -the world. Using a technology called "the Way Back Machine," you could +the world. Using a technology called
the Way Back Machine,you could enter a Web page, and see all of its copies going back to 1996, as well as when those pages changed.
Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended.That was +later changed, without notice, to
Major Combat Operations in Iraq +Have Ended.E-mail from Brewster Kahle, 1 December 2003.
two hundred and thirty +terabytes of material—and was
ten times larger than the +Library of Congress.And this was just the first of the archives that Kahle set out to build. In addition to the Internet Archive, Kahle has been constructing the Television Archive. Television, it turns out, is even more ephemeral than the Internet. While much of twentieth-century @@ -5567,10 +5577,10 @@ culture was constructed through television, only a tiny proportion of that culture is available for anyone to see today. Three hours of news are recorded each evening by Vanderbilt University—thanks to a specific exemption in the copyright law. That content is indexed, and -is available to scholars for a very low fee. "But other than that, -[television] is almost unavailable," Kahle told me. "If you were +is available to scholars for a very low fee.
But other than that, +[television] is almost unavailable,Kahle told me.
If you were Barbara Walters you could get access to [the archives], but if you are -just a graduate student?" As Kahle put it, +just a graduate student?As Kahle put it,
@@ -5607,13 +5617,13 @@ These rules applied to film as well. But in 1915, the Library of Congress made an exception for film. Film could be copyrighted so long as such deposits were made. But the filmmaker was then allowed to borrow back the deposits—for an unlimited time at no cost. In -1915 alone, there were more than 5,475 films deposited and "borrowed -back." Thus, when the copyrights to films expire, there is no copy +1915 alone, there were more than 5,475 films deposited and Quayle, Dan borrowed +back.Thus, when the copyrights to films expire, there is no copy held by any library. The copy exists—if it exists at all—in the library archive of the film company.-Doug Herrick, "Toward a National Film Collection: Motion Pictures at -the Library of Congress," Film Library Quarterly 13 nos. 2–3 +Doug Herrick,Toward a National Film Collection: Motion Pictures at +the Library of Congress,Film Library Quarterly 13 nos. 2–3 (1980): 5; Anthony Slide,Nitrate Won't Wait: A History of Film Preservation in the United States ( Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., 1992), 36. @@ -5622,10 +5632,10 @@ Co., 1992), 36.The same is generally true about television. Television broadcasts were originally not copyrighted—there was no way to capture the -broadcasts, so there was no fear of "theft." But as technology enabled +broadcasts, so there was no fear of theft.But as technology enabled capturing, broadcasters relied increasingly upon the law. The law required they make a copy of each broadcast for the work to be -"copyrighted." But those copies were simply kept by the +copyrighted.But those copies were simply kept by the broadcasters. No library had any right to them; the government didn't demand them. The content of this part of American culture is practically invisible to anyone who would look. @@ -5643,7 +5653,7 @@ events of that day.Kahle had the same idea with film. Working with Rick Prelinger, whose -archive of film includes close to 45,000 "ephemeral films" (meaning +archive of film includes close to 45,000 ephemeral films(meaning films other than Hollywood movies, films that were never copyrighted), Kahle established the Movie Archive. Prelinger let Kahle digitize 1,300 films in this archive and post those films on the Internet to be @@ -5654,7 +5664,7 @@ footage sales went up dramatically. People could easily find the material they wanted to use. Some downloaded that material and made films on their own. Others purchased copies to enable other films to be made. Either way, the archive enabled access to this important -part of our culture. Want to see a copy of the "Duck and Cover" film +part of our culture. Want to see a copy of theDuck and Coverfilm that instructed children how to save themselves in the middle of nuclear attack? Go to archive.org, and you can download the film in a few minutes—for free. @@ -5678,7 +5688,7 @@ has—a noncommercial life.For here is an idea that we should more clearly recognize. Every bit -of creative property goes through different "lives." In its first +of creative property goes through different lives.In its first life, if the @@ -5701,11 +5711,11 @@ longer sold. The same has always been true about books. A book goes out of print very quickly (the average today is after about a year). After it is out of print, it can be sold in used book stores without the @@ -5784,15 +5794,15 @@ arts could make the dream of the Library of Alexandria real again. -Dave Barns, "Fledgling Career in Antique Books: Woodstock Landlord, -Bar Owner Starts a New Chapter by Adopting Business," Chicago Tribune , +Dave Barns,Fledgling Career in Antique Books: Woodstock Landlord, +Bar Owner Starts a New Chapter by Adopting Business,Chicago Tribune , 5 September 1997, at Metro Lake 1L. Of books published between 1927 and 1946, only 2.2 percent were in print in 2002. R. Anthony Reese, -"The First Sale Doctrine in the Era of Digital Networks,"Boston + The First Sale Doctrine in the Era of Digital Networks,Boston College Law Review 44 (2003): 593 n. 51.Technologists have thus removed the economic costs of building such an archive. But lawyers' costs remain. For as much as we might like to -call these "archives," as warm as the idea of a "library" might seem, -the "content" that is collected in these digital spaces is also -someone's "property." And the law of property restricts the freedoms +call these archives,as warm as the idea of alibrarymight seem, +thecontentthat is collected in these digital spaces is also +someone'sproperty.And the law of property restricts the freedoms that Kahle and others would exercise.- CHAPTER TEN: "Property" +CHAPTER TEN: PropertyJack Valenti has been the president of the Motion Picture Association of America since 1966. He first came to Washington, D.C., with Lyndon @@ -5843,7 +5853,7 @@ the MPAA rating system, it has probably avoided a great deal of speech-regulating harm. But there is an aspect to the organization's mission that is both the most radical and the most important. This is the organization's effort, epitomized in Valenti's every act, to -redefine the meaning of "creative property." +redefine the meaning of creative property.In 1982, Valenti's testimony to Congress captured the strategy @@ -5872,11 +5882,11 @@ Valenti). The strategy of this rhetoric, like the strategy of most of Valenti's rhetoric, is brilliant and simple and brilliant because simple. The -"central theme" to which "reasonable men and women" will return is + @@ -5887,25 +5897,25 @@ use elections to pick presidents. But in fact, there is no more extreme a claim made bycentral themeto whichreasonable men and womenwill return is this: -"Creative property owners must be accorded the same rights and -protections resident in all other property owners in the nation." +Creative property owners must be accorded the same rights and +protections resident in all other property owners in the nation.There are no second-class citizens, Valenti might have continued. There should be no second-class property owners.anyone who is serious in this debate than this claim of Valenti's. Jack Valenti, however sweet and however brilliant, is perhaps the nation's foremost extremist when -it comes to the nature and scope of "creative property." His views +it comes to the nature and scope ofcreative property.His views haveno reasonable connection to our actual legal tradition, even if the subtle pull of his Texan charm has slowly redefined that tradition, at least in Washington.-While "creative property" is certainly "property" in a nerdy and +While creative propertyis certainlypropertyin a nerdy and precise sense that lawyers are trained to understand,it has never been the case, nor should it be, that -"creative property owners" have been "accorded the same rights and -protection resident in all other property owners." Indeed, if creative + -Lawyers speak of "property" not as an absolute thing, but as a bundle +Lawyers speak of propertynot as an absolute thing, but as a bundle of rights that are sometimes associated with a particular -object. Thus, my "property right" to my car gives me the right to +object. Thus, myproperty rightto my car gives me the right to exclusive use, but not the right to drive at 150 miles an hour. For -the best effort to connect the ordinary meaning of "property" to -"lawyer talk," see Bruce Ackerman,Private Property and the +the best effort to connect the ordinary meaning of propertyto +lawyer talk,see Bruce Ackerman,Private Property and the Constitution (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977), 26–27.creative property ownershave beenaccorded the same rights and +protection resident in all other property owners.Indeed, if creative property owners were given the same rights as all other property owners, that would effect a radical, and radically undesirable, change in our tradition. @@ -5946,29 +5956,29 @@ Valenti's argument, we need look no further than the United States Constitution itself.-The framers of our Constitution loved "property." Indeed, so strongly +The framers of our Constitution loved property.Indeed, so strongly did they love property that they built into the Constitution an important requirement. If the government takes your property—if it condemns your house, or acquires a slice of land from your -farm—it is required, under the Fifth Amendment's "Takings -Clause," to pay you "just compensation" for that taking. The +farm—it is required, under the Fifth Amendment'sTakings +Clause,to pay youjust compensationfor that taking. The Constitution thus guarantees that property is, in a certain sense, sacred. It cannotever be taken from the property owner unless the government pays for the privilege.Yet the very same Constitution speaks very differently about what -Valenti calls "creative property." In the clause granting Congress the -power to create "creative property," the Constitution - requires that after a "limited time," Congress -take back the rights that it has granted and set the "creative -property" free to the public domain. Yet when Congress does this, when -the expiration of a copyright term "takes" your copyright and turns it +Valenti callscreative property.In the clause granting Congress the +power to createcreative property,the Constitution +requires that after alimited time,Congress +take back the rights that it has granted and set thecreative +propertyfree to the public domain. Yet when Congress does this, when +the expiration of a copyright termtakesyour copyright and turns it over to the public domain, Congress does not have any obligation to -pay "just compensation" for this "taking." Instead, the same +payjust compensationfor thistaking.Instead, the same Constitution that requires compensation for your land -requires that you lose your "creative property" right without any +requires that you lose yourcreative propertyright without any compensation at all.@@ -6002,7 +6012,7 @@ domain? To answer this question, we need to get some perspective on the -history of these "creative property" rights, and the control that they +history of these creative propertyrights, and the control that they enabled. Once we see clearly how differently these rights have been defined, we will be in a better position to ask the question that should be at the core of this war: Notwhether @@ -6068,7 +6078,7 @@ individual or group might behave.Finally, and for the moment, perhaps, most mysteriously, -"architecture"—the physical world as one finds it—is a + architecture—the physical world as one finds it—is a constraint on behavior. A fallen bridge might constrain your ability to get across a river. Railroad tracks might constrain the ability of a community to integrate its social life. As with the market, @@ -6076,7 +6086,7 @@ architecture does not effect its constraint through ex post punishments. Instead, also as with the market, architecture effects its constraint through simultaneous conditions. These conditions are imposed not by courts enforcing contracts, or by police punishing -theft, but by nature, by "architecture." If a 500-pound boulder +theft, but by nature, byarchitecture.If a 500-pound boulder blocks your way, it is the law of gravity that enforces this constraint. If a $500 airplane ticket stands between you and a flight to New York, it is the market that enforces this constraint. @@ -6102,7 +6112,7 @@ must consider how these four in particular interact.driving speed, constraints on
freedomto drive a car at a high speed. That freedom is in part restricted by laws: speed limits that say how fast you can drive in particular places at particular times. It is in part restricted by architecture: speed bumps, for @@ -6126,7 +6136,7 @@ do. Law's only distinction is that it alone speaks as if it has a right self-consciously to change the other three. The right of the other three is more timidly expressed. See Lawrence Lessig,
The New Chicago School,
liberty.They object because their focus when considering the constraints that exist at any particular moment are constraints imposed exclusively by the government. For instance, if a storm destroys a bridge, these people @@ -6167,23 +6177,25 @@ is to confuse the stuff of politics with the vagaries of ordinary life. I don't mean to deny the value in this narrower view, which depends upon the context of the inquiry. I do, however, mean to argue against any insistence that this narrower view is the only proper view -of liberty. As I argued in
The +Right to Work,in Malcom Rutherford and Warren J. Samuels, eds., +
White Paperprepared by the Commerce Department (one heavily influenced by the copyright warriors) in 1995, this mix of regulatory modalities had already been identified and the strategy to respond already mapped. In response to the changes the @@ -6273,7 +6285,7 @@ campaign to protect itself from the harmful consequences of a technological innovation. And I would be the last person to argue that the changing technology of the Internet has not had a profound effect on the content industry's way of doing business, or as John Seely -Brown describes it, its "architecture of revenue." +Brown describes it, its
architecture of revenue.
Film vs. Digital: Can Kodak Build a Bridge?BusinessWeek online, 2 August 1999, available at
Can Kodak Make Up for Lost Moments?Forbes.com, 6 October 2003, available at
stickinessof television advertising (if a boring commercial comes on the TV, the remote makes it easy to surf ), and it may well be that this change has weakened the television advertising market. But does anyone believe we should regulate remotes to @@ -6314,8 +6326,8 @@ free trade, the government's role is not to support one way of doing business against others. Its role is not to pick winners and protect them against loss. If the government did this generally, then we would never have any progress. As Microsoft chairman Bill Gates wrote in -1991, in a memo criticizing software patents, "established companies -have an interest in excluding future competitors."
established companies +have an interest in excluding future competitors.
Congress +shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech.So when +Congress is being asked to pass laws that would
abridgethe freedom of speech, it should ask— carefully—whether such regulation is justified.
justified.My argument is about their effect. For before we get to the question of justification, a hard question that depends a great deal upon your values, we should first ask whether we understand the effect of the changes the content industry wants. @@ -6400,16 +6412,16 @@ solve the problems that DDT was meant to solve.
environmentalismfor culture.
A Politics of Intellectual Property: +Environmentalism for the Net?
for free.The point is that some of the ways in which we might protect authors will have unintended consequences for the cultural environment, much like DDT had for the natural environment. And just @@ -6441,12 +6453,12 @@ be lost.
creative +propertyrights clear; its express limitations reinforce the English aim to avoid overly powerful publishers.
creative propertyrights is granted to Congress in a way that, for our Constitution, at least, is very odd. Article I, section 8, clause 8 of our Constitution states that:
Progress Clause,for notice what this clause does not say. It does not say Congress has the power to grant -"creative property rights." It says that Congress has the power +
creative property rights.It says that Congress has the power
to Authorsonly.
copyrighttoday. The scope of that regulation is far beyond anything they ever considered. To begin to understand what they did, we need to put our -"copyright" in context: We need to see how it has changed in the 210 +
copyrightin context: We need to see how it has changed in the 210 years since they first struck its design.
Copyrighttoday.
extinguish[ing], by plain implication of `the supreme Law of the Land,'(emphasis added).the perpetual rights which authors had, or -were supposed by some to have, under the Common Law " +were supposed by some to have, under the Common Law
Study No. 31: Renewal of Copyright,
Indefinitely Renewable Copyright,
naturalauthors, that term was life plus fifty years. For corporations, the term was seventy-five years. Then, in 1992, Congress abandoned the renewal requirement for all works created before 1978. All works still under copyright would be accorded the @@ -6676,7 +6688,7 @@ assure that works that were no longer exploited passed into the public domain. And indeed, after these changes, it is unclear whether it is even possible to put works into the public domain. The public domain is orphaned by these changes in copyright law. Despite the requirement -that terms be "limited," we have no evidence that anything will limit +that terms be
limited,we have no evidence that anything will limit them.
Indefinitely Renewable Copyright,loc. cit.
scopeof a copyright is the range of rights granted by the law. The scope of American copyright has changed dramatically. Those changes are not necessarily bad. But we should understand the extent of the changes if we're to keep this debate in context.
maps, +charts, and books.That means it didn't cover, for example, music or architecture. More significantly, the right granted by a copyright gave -the author the exclusive right to "publish" copyrighted works. That +the author the exclusive right to
publishcopyrighted works. That means someone else violated the copyright only if he republished the work without the copyright owner's permission. Finally, the right granted by a copyright was an exclusive right to that particular book. The right -did not extend to what lawyers call "derivative works." It would not, +did not extend to what lawyers call
derivative works.It would not, therefore, interfere with the right of someone other than the author to translate a copyrighted book, or to adapt the story to a different form (such as a drama based on a published book). @@ -6723,11 +6735,11 @@ today are extremely hard to describe simply, in general terms, the right covers practically any creative work that is reduced to a tangible form. It covers music as well as architecture, drama as well as computer programs. It gives the copyright owner of that creative -work not only the exclusive right to "publish" the work, but also the -exclusive right of control over any "copies" of that work. And most +work not only the exclusive right to
publishthe work, but also the +exclusive right of control over any
copiesof that work. And most significant for our purposes here, the right gives the copyright owner control over not only his or her particular work, but also any -"derivative work" that might grow out of the original work. In this +
derivative workthat might grow out of the original work. In this way, the right covers more creative work, protects the creative work more broadly, and protects works that are based in a significant way on the initial creative work. @@ -6761,7 +6773,7 @@ somewhere so that it could be copied by others without locating the original author.
formalitieswere abolished in the American system when we decided to follow European copyright law. There is no requirement that you register a work to get a copyright; the copyright now is automatic; the copyright exists whether or not you mark your work with @@ -6780,8 +6792,8 @@ without your permission. The aim of the act was to regulate publishers so as to prevent that kind of unfair competition. In 1790, there were 174 publishers in the United States.
Poets, Pirates, and the +Creation of American Literature,29
derivative +rights.If you write a book, no one can make a movie out of your book without permission. No one can translate it without permission. CliffsNotes can't make an abridgment unless permission is granted. All of these derivative uses of your original work are controlled by the @@ -6851,7 +6863,7 @@ is a different wrong. Some view transformation as no wrong at all—they believe that our law, as the framers penned it, should not protect derivative rights at all.
The Copyright Cage,
copiesand +derivative works. See Jed Rubenfeld,
The Freedom of Imagination: +Copyright's Constitutionality,
Mickey Mouse,why should you be able to make Mickey Mouse toys and be the one to trade on the value that Disney originally created?
copies—a public performance of a copyrighted song, for example, is regulated even though performance per se doesn't make a copy; 17
copy; 17
copies;17
Copies.That certainly sounds like the obvious thing for
creative +propertydeserves the
same rightsas all other property, it is the
fair uses.
fair usesfor public policy (and possibly First Amendment) reasons.
fair uses.
fairregardless of the copyright owner's views.
naturein the sense that it couldn't be different, but rather that its present instantiation entails a copy. Optical networks need not make copies of content they transmit, and a digital network could be designed to delete anything it copies so that the same number @@ -7072,7 +7084,7 @@ Second, this shift is especially troubling in the context of transformative uses of creative content. Again, we can all understand the wrong in commercial piracy. But the law now purports to regulate
Copy and pasteand
cut and pastebecome crimes. Tinkering with a story and releasing it to others exposes the tinkerer to at least a requirement of justification. However troubling the expansion with respect to copying a particular work, it @@ -7083,7 +7095,7 @@ creative work. Third, this shift from category 1 to category 2 puts an extraordinary -burden on category 3 ("fair use") that fair use never before had to +burden on category 3 (
fair use) that fair use never before had to bear. If a copyright owner now tried to control how many times I could read a book on-line, the natural response would be to argue that this is a violation of my fair use rights. But there has never been @@ -7105,7 +7117,7 @@ enough.
traileradvertisements for movies available to video stores. The video stores displayed the trailers as a way to sell videos. Video Pipeline got the trailers from the film distributors, put the trailers on tape, and sold the tapes to the retail stores. @@ -7113,9 +7125,9 @@ the trailers on tape, and sold the tapes to the retail stores.
selling by samplingtechnique by giving on-line stores the same ability to enable -"browsing." Just as in a bookstore you can read a few pages of a book +
browsing.Just as in a bookstore you can read a few pages of a book before you buy the book, so, too, you would be able to sample a bit from the movie on-line before you bought it.
fair userights to distribute the clips as they had. So they filed a lawsuit to ask the court to declare that these rights were in fact their rights.
willfully +infringedon Disney's copyright. When a court makes a finding of willful infringement, it can award damages not on the basis of the actual harm to the copyright owner, but on the basis of an amount set in the statute. Because Video Pipeline had distributed seven hundred @@ -7158,7 +7170,7 @@ Now, you might think this is a close case, and I think the courts would consider it a close case. My point here is to map the change that gives Disney this power. Before the Internet, Disney couldn't really control how people got access to their content. Once a video -was in the marketplace, the "first-sale doctrine" would free the +was in the marketplace, the
first-sale doctrinewould free the seller to use the video as he wished, including showing portions of it in order to engender sales of the entire movie video. But with the Internet, it becomes possible for Disney to centralize control over @@ -7224,14 +7236,14 @@ wrote a nasty letter to the Marxes, warning them that there would be serious legal consequences if they went forward with their plan.
Recognizing the Public Domain,
were brothers long before +you were.
Politics
Politics.
The Future of Ideas.
permissions— as if the publisher has the power to control how you use these works. For works under copyright, the copyright owner certainly does have the power—up to the limits of the copyright law. But for work not under copyright, there is no such copyright @@ -7368,9 +7380,9 @@ control that the law would enable.
lives.Though the e-book says that these are +permissions, they are not the sort of
permissionsthat most of us +deal with. When a teenager gets
permissionto stay out till midnight, she knows (unless she's Cinderella) that she can stay out till 2 A.M., but will suffer a punishment if she's caught. But when the Adobe eBook Reader says I have the permission to make ten copies @@ -7387,7 +7399,7 @@ won't read aloud. These are
Warner Brothers,erased
Brothersfrom the sentence.
Alice's Adventures in +Wonderland.
permissionsindicated, not allowed to
read aloud!
Aibo.The Aibo learns tricks, cuddles, and follows you around. It eats only electricity and that doesn't leave that much of a mess (at least in your house).
Teachhere has a special meaning. Aibos are just cute computers. You teach a computer how to do something by programming it differently. So to say that aibopet.com was giving information about how to teach the dog to do new tricks is just to say that aibopet.com was giving information to users of the Aibo pet about how to hack -their computer "dog" to make it do new tricks (thus, aibohack.com). +their computer
dogto make it do new tricks (thus, aibohack.com).
drive,the printer. If you discovered +that, you'd later be happy to discover a hack on the Net by someone +who has written a driver to enable the computer to drive the printer +you just bought.
Anticircumvention Rules: Threat to Science,+
Play Dead: Sony Muzzles +the Techies Who Teach a Robot Dog New Tricks,
Court Dismisses Computer Scientists' Challenge to +DMCA,
Copyright Act Raising Free-Speech Concerns,
Is the RIAA Running Scared?Salon.com, +April 2001; Electronic Frontier Foundation,
Frequently Asked +Questions aboutavailable atFelten and USENIX v.RIAA Legal Case,
this music cannot be copied,and have a computer respect that +command. The technology was to be part of a
trusted systemof control that would get content owners to trust the system of the Internet much more.
DMCA).
for example, had testified in that case that he wanted people to feel free to tape Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.Mr. Rogers ,
@@ -9082,8 +9130,8 @@ But there's an aspect of this story that is not lefty in any sense. Indeed, it is an aspect that could be written by the most extreme promarket ideologue. And if you're one of these sorts (and a special one at that, 188 pages into a book like this), then you can see this -other aspect by substituting "free market" every place I've spoken of -"free culture." The point is the same, even if the interests +other aspect by substitutingSome public stations, as well as commercial stations, program the -"Neighborhood" at hours when some children cannot use it. I think that + Neighborhoodat hours when some children cannot use it. I think that it's a real service to families to be able to record such programs and show them at appropriate times. I have always felt that with the advent of all of this new technology that allows people to tape the -"Neighborhood" off-the-air, and I'm speaking for the "Neighborhood" +Neighborhoodoff-the-air, and I'm speaking for theNeighborhoodbecause that's what I produce, that they then become much more active in the programming of their family's television life. Very frankly, I am opposed to people being programmed by others. My whole approach in -broadcasting has always been "You are an important person just the way -you are. You can make healthy decisions." Maybe I'm going on too long, +broadcasting has always beenYou are an important person just the way +you are. You can make healthy decisions.Maybe I'm going on too long, but I just feel that anything that allows a person to be more active in the control of his or her life, in a healthy way, is important.@@ -7762,6 +7804,12 @@ technologies absolutely, despite the potential that they might do some good, but permits guns, despite the obvious and tragic harm they do. +Conrad, Paul + Aibo robotic dog + robotic dog + Sony +Aibo robotic dog produced by +The Aibo and RIAA examples demonstrate how copyright owners are changing the balance that copyright law grants. Using code, copyright @@ -7802,8 +7850,8 @@ fiction about the show. One person would play Spock, another, Captain Kirk. The characters would begin with a plot from a real story, then simply continue it. @@ -7878,7 +7926,7 @@ nature.-For an early and prescient analysis, see Rebecca Tushnet, "Legal Fictions, -Copyright, Fan Fiction, and a New Common Law," Loyola of Los Angeles +For an early and prescient analysis, see Rebecca Tushnet, Legal Fictions, +Copyright, Fan Fiction, and a New Common Law,Loyola of Los Angeles Entertainment Law Journal 17 (1997): 651.Changes in scope are the easier ones to describe. As Senator John McCain summarized the data produced in the FCC's review of media -ownership, "five companies control 85 percent of our media sources." +ownership, five companies control 85 percent of our media sources.FCC Oversight: Hearing Before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, 108th Cong., 1st sess. (22 May 2003) @@ -7887,13 +7935,13 @@ The five recording labels of Universal Music Group, BMG, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, and EMI control 84.8 percent of the U.S. music market. -The "five largest cable companies pipe -programming to 74 percent of the cable subscribers nationwide." -Lynette Holloway, "Despite a Marketing Blitz, CD Sales Continue to -Slide," New York Times , 23 December 2002. +Lynette Holloway,Despite a Marketing Blitz, CD Sales Continue to +Slide,New York Times , 23 December 2002.+The five largest cable companies pipe +programming to 74 percent of the cable subscribers nationwide.-Molly Ivins, "Media Consolidation Must Be Stopped," Charleston Gazette , +Molly Ivins,Media Consolidation Must Be Stopped,Charleston Gazette , 31 May 2003.@@ -7943,7 +7991,7 @@ systems now distribute News Corp. content in Europe and Asia; if Murdoch becomes DirecTV's largest single owner, that system will serve the same function in the United States. BMG @@ -7991,8 +8039,8 @@ was happy to have the series; ABC could not stop Lear from walking. The copyrights that Lear held assured an independence from network control. -James Fallows, "The Age of Murdoch," Atlantic Monthly (September +James Fallows,The Age of Murdoch,Atlantic Monthly (September 2003): 89.Fallows, James -Leonard Hill, "The Axis of Access," remarks before Weidenbaum Center -Forum, "Entertainment Economics: The Movie Industry," St. Louis, +Leonard Hill, The Axis of Access,remarks before Weidenbaum Center +Forum,Entertainment Economics: The Movie Industry,St. Louis, Missouri, 3 April 2003 (transcript of prepared remarks available atlink #28 ; for the Lear story, not included in the prepared remarks, see @@ -8007,19 +8055,19 @@ the networks from controlling the content they syndicated. The law required a separation between the networks and the content producers; that separation would guarantee Lear freedom. And as late as 1992, because of these rules, the vast majority of prime time -television—75 percent of it—was "independent" of the +television—75 percent of it—wasindependentof the networks.In 1994, the FCC abandoned the rules that required this independence. After that change, the networks quickly changed the balance. In 1985, there were twenty-five independent television production studios; in -2002, only five independent television studios remained. "In 1992, +2002, only five independent television studios remained. In 1992, only 15 percent of new series were produced for a network by a company it controlled. Last year, the percentage of shows produced by -controlled companies more than quintupled to 77 percent." "In 1992, 16 +controlled companies more than quintupled to 77 percent.In 1992, 16 new series were produced independently of conglomerate control, last -year there was one."+year there was one. In 2002, 75 percent of prime time television was owned by the networks -that ran it. "In the ten-year period between 1992 and 2002, the number +that ran it. NewsCorp./DirecTV Merger and Media Consolidation: Hearings on Media Ownership Before the Senate Commerce Committee, 108th Cong., 1st @@ -8031,11 +8079,11 @@ in her Remarks at FCC En Banc Hearing, Richmond, Virginia, 27 February 2003. In the ten-year period between 1992 and 2002, the number of prime time television hours per week produced by network studios increased over 200%, whereas the number of prime time television hours per week produced by independent studios decreased -63%."+63%. @@ -8065,7 +8113,7 @@ u]sed to have dozens and dozens of thriving independent production companies producing television programs. Now you have less than a handful. Ibid. @@ -8086,8 +8134,8 @@ democracy. -"Barry Diller Takes on Media Deregulation," Now with Bill Moyers , Bill +Barry Diller Takes on Media Deregulation,Now with Bill Moyers , Bill Moyers, 25 April 2003, edited transcript available atlink #31 .Clark, Kim B. Economics itself offers a parallel that explains why this integration -affects creativity. Clay Christensen has written about the "Innovator's -Dilemma": the fact that large traditional firms find it rational to ignore +affects creativity. Clay Christensen has written about the Innovator's +Dilemma: the fact that large traditional firms find it rational to ignore new, breakthrough technologies that compete with their core business. The same analysis could help explain why large, traditional media companies would find it rational to ignore new cultural trends.@@ -8096,8 +8144,8 @@ Clayton M. Christensen, The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary National Bestseller that Changed the Way We Do Business (Cambridge: Harvard Business School Press, 1997). Christensen acknowledges that the idea was first suggested by Dean Kim Clark. See -Kim B. Clark, "The Interaction of Design Hierarchies and Market -Concepts in Technological Evolution,"Research Policy 14 (1985): +Kim B. Clark,The Interaction of Design Hierarchies and Market +Concepts in Technological Evolution,Research Policy 14 (1985): 235–51. For a more recent study, see Richard Foster and Sarah Kaplan,Creative Destruction: Why Companies That Are Built to Last Underperform the Market—and How to Successfully Transform Them @@ -8150,7 +8198,7 @@ these issues.Beginning in 1998, the Office of National Drug Control Policy launched -a media campaign as part of the "war on drugs." The campaign produced +a media campaign as part of the war on drugs.The campaign produced scores of short film clips about issues related to illegal drugs. In one series (the Nick and Norm series) two men are in a bar, discussing the idea of legalizing drugs as a way to avoid some of the collateral @@ -8179,7 +8227,7 @@ message will be heard then?No. You cannot. Television stations have a general policy of avoiding -"controversial" ads. Ads sponsored by the government are deemed + controversialads. Ads sponsored by the government are deemed uncontroversial; ads disagreeing with the government are controversial. This selectivity might be thought inconsistent with the First Amendment, but the Supreme Court has held that stations have @@ -8190,28 +8238,28 @@ rights of the stations to be this biased.The Marijuana Policy Project, in February 2003, sought to place ads that directly responded to the Nick and Norm series on stations within -the Washington, D.C., area. Comcast rejected the ads as "against -[their] policy." The local NBC affiliate, WRC, rejected the ads +the Washington, D.C., area. Comcast rejected the ads as against +[their] policy.The local NBC affiliate, WRC, rejected the ads without reviewing them. The local ABC affiliate, WJOA, originally agreed to run the ads and accepted payment to do so, but later decided not to run the ads and returned the collected fees. Interview with Neal Levine, 15 October 2003. These restrictions are, of course, not -limited to drug policy. See, for example, Nat Ives, "On the Issue of -an Iraq War, Advocacy Ads Meet with Rejection from TV Networks,"New +limited to drug policy. See, for example, Nat Ives, On the Issue of +an Iraq War, Advocacy Ads Meet with Rejection from TV Networks,New York Times , 13 March 2003, C4. Outside of election-related air time there is very little that the FCC or the courts are willing to do to -even the playing field. For a general overview, see Rhonda Brown, "Ad +even the playing field. For a general overview, see Rhonda Brown,Ad Hoc Access: The Regulation of Editorial Advertising on Television and -Radio,"Yale Law and Policy Review 6 (1988): 449–79, and for a +Radio,Yale Law and Policy Review 6 (1988): 449–79, and for a more recent summary of the stance of the FCC and the courts, seeRadio-Television News Directors Association v.FCC , 184 F. 3d 872 (D.C. Cir. 1999). Municipal authorities exercise the same authority as the networks. In a recent example from San Francisco, the San Francisco transit authority rejected an ad that criticized its Muni -diesel buses. Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross, "Antidiesel Group Fuming -After Muni Rejects Ad," SFGate.com, 16 June 2003, available at +diesel buses. Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross,Antidiesel Group Fuming +After Muni Rejects Ad,SFGate.com, 16 June 2003, available atlink #32 . The ground -was that the criticism was "too controversial." +was that the criticism wastoo controversial.ABC Comcast @@ -8236,12 +8284,12 @@ decide which issues the rest of us get to know about. Marijuana Policy Project Together There is something innocent and obvious about the claim of the -copyright warriors that the government should "protect my property." +copyright warriors that the government should protect my property.In the abstract, it is obviously true and, ordinarily, totally harmless. No sane sort who is not an anarchist could disagree.-But when we see how dramatically this "property" has changed— +But when we see how dramatically this propertyhas changed— when we recognize how it might now interact with both technology and markets to mean that the effective constraint on the liberty to cultivate our culture is dramatically different—the claim begins @@ -8251,7 +8299,7 @@ to seem less innocent and obvious. Given (1) the power of technology to supplement the law's control, and (2) the power of concentrated markets to weaken the opportunity for dissent, if strictly enforcing -the massively expanded "property" rights granted by copyright +the massively expandedpropertyrights granted by copyright fundamentally changes the freedom within this culture to cultivate and build upon our past, then we have to ask whether this property should be redefined. @@ -8311,7 +8359,7 @@ now interact to turn this historically benign regulation into the most significant regulation of culture that our free society has known.@@ -8486,15 +8534,15 @@ if derivative rights were more sharply restricted. -Siva Vaidhyanathan captures a similar point in his "four surrenders" of +Siva Vaidhyanathan captures a similar point in his four surrendersof copyright law in the digital age. See Vaidhyanathan, 159–60.Vaidhyanathan, Siva The issue is therefore not simply whether copyright is property. Of -course copyright is a kind of "property," and of course, as with any +course copyright is a kind of property,and of course, as with any property, the state ought to protect it. But first impressions notwithstanding, historically, this property right (as with all property rightsIt was the single most important contribution of the legal realist movement to demonstrate that all property rights are always crafted to -balance public and private interests. See Thomas C. Grey, "The -Disintegration of Property," in Nomos XXII: Property , J. Roland +balance public and private interests. See Thomas C. Grey,The +Disintegration of Property,inNomos XXII: Property , J. Roland Pennock and John W. Chapman, eds. (New York: New York University Press, 1980).@@ -8502,7 +8550,7 @@ Press, 1980). has been crafted to balance the important need to give authors and artists incentives with the equally important need to assure access to creative work. This balance has always been struck in light of new -technologies. And for almost half of our tradition, the "copyright" +technologies. And for almost half of our tradition, the legal realist movement copyrightdid not controlat all the freedom of others to build upon or transform a creative work. American culture was born free, and for almost 180 years our country consistently protected a @@ -8510,10 +8558,10 @@ vibrant and rich free culture.We achieved that free culture because our law respected important -limits on the scope of the interests protected by "property." The very -birth of "copyright" as a statutory right recognized those limits, by +limits on the scope of the interests protected by property.The very +birth ofcopyrightas a statutory right recognized those limits, by granting copyright owners protection for a limited time only (the -story of chapter 6). The tradition of "fair use" is animated by a +story of chapter 6). The tradition offair useis animated by a similar concern that is increasingly under strain as the costs of exercising any fair use right become unavoidably high (the story of chapter 7). Adding @@ -8557,7 +8605,7 @@ lawyer.Wells, H. G. - "Country of the Blind, The" (Wells) + Country of the Blind, The(Wells)@@ -8565,75 +8613,75 @@ In a well-known short story by H. G. Wells, a mountain climber named Nunez trips (literally, down an ice slope) into an unknown and isolated valley in the Peruvian Andes. -The valley is extraordinarily beautiful, with "sweet water, pasture, +The valley is extraordinarily beautiful, with -H. G. Wells, "The Country of the Blind" (1904, 1911). See H. G. Wells, +H. G. Wells, The Country of the Blind(1904, 1911). See H. G. Wells,The Country of the Blind and Other Stories , Michael Sherborne, ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996).sweet water, pasture, an even climate, slopes of rich brown soil with tangles of a shrub -that bore an excellent fruit." But the villagers are all blind. Nunez -takes this as an opportunity. "In the Country of the Blind," he tells -himself, "the One-Eyed Man is King." So he resolves to live with the +that bore an excellent fruit.But the villagers are all blind. Nunez +takes this as an opportunity.In the Country of the Blind,he tells +himself,the One-Eyed Man is King.So he resolves to live with the villagers to explore life as a king.Things don't go quite as he planned. He tries to explain the idea of sight to the villagers. They don't understand. He tells them they are -"blind." They don't have the word blind . They think he's just thick. +blind.They don't have the wordblind . They think he's just thick. Indeed, as they increasingly notice the things he can't do (hear the sound of grass being stepped on, for example), they increasingly try -to control him. He, in turn, becomes increasingly frustrated. "`You +to control him. He, in turn, becomes increasingly frustrated.`You don't understand,' he cried, in a voice that was meant to be great and resolute, and which broke. `You are blind and I can see. Leave me -alone!'" +alone!'The villagers don't leave him alone. Nor do they see (so to speak) the virtue of his special power. Not even the ultimate target of his -affection, a young woman who to him seems "the most beautiful thing in -the whole of creation," understands the beauty of sight. Nunez's -description of what he sees "seemed to her the most poetical of +affection, a young woman who to him seems the most beautiful thing in +the whole of creation,understands the beauty of sight. Nunez's +description of what he seesseemed to her the most poetical of fancies, and she listened to his description of the stars and the mountains and her own sweet white-lit beauty as though it was a guilty -indulgence." "She did not believe," Wells tells us, and "she could -only half understand, but she was mysteriously delighted." +indulgence.She did not believe,Wells tells us, andshe could +only half understand, but she was mysteriously delighted.-When Nunez announces his desire to marry his "mysteriously delighted" -love, the father and the village object. "You see, my dear," her -father instructs, "he's an idiot. He has delusions. He can't do -anything right." They take Nunez to the village doctor. +When Nunez announces his desire to marry his mysteriously delighted+love, the father and the village object.You see, my dear,her +father instructs,he's an idiot. He has delusions. He can't do +anything right.They take Nunez to the village doctor.-After a careful examination, the doctor gives his opinion. "His brain -is affected," he reports. +After a careful examination, the doctor gives his opinion. His brain +is affected,he reports.-"What affects it?" the father asks. "Those queer things that are + What affects it?the father asks.Those queer things that are called the eyes … are diseased … in such a way as to affect -his brain." +his brain.-The doctor continues: "I think I may say with reasonable certainty +The doctor continues: I think I may say with reasonable certainty that in order to cure him completely, all that we need to do is a simple and easy surgical operation—namely, to remove these -irritant bodies [the eyes]." +irritant bodies [the eyes].-"Thank Heaven for science!" says the father to the doctor. They inform + Thank Heaven for science!says the father to the doctor. They inform Nunez of this condition necessary for him to be allowed his bride. (You'll have to read the original to learn what happens in the end. I believe in free culture, but never in giving away the end of a story.) It sometimes happens that the eggs of twins fuse in the mother's -womb. That fusion produces a "chimera." A chimera is a single creature +womb. That fusion produces achimera.A chimera is a single creature with two sets of DNA. The DNA in the blood, for example, might be different from the DNA of the skin. This possibility is an underused -plot for murder mysteries. "But the DNA shows with 100 percent +plot for murder mysteries.But the DNA shows with 100 percent certainty that she was not the person whose blood was at the -scene. …" +scene. …@@ -8643,17 +8691,17 @@ impossible. A single person can't have two sets of DNA. The very idea of DNA is that it is the code of an individual. Yet in fact, not only can two individuals have the same set of DNA (identical twins), but one person can have two different sets of DNA (a chimera). Our -understanding of a "person" should reflect this reality. +understanding of a personshould reflect this reality.The more I work to understand the current struggle over copyright and culture, which I've sometimes called unfairly, and sometimes not -unfairly enough, "the copyright wars," the more I think we're dealing -with a chimera. For example, in the battle over the question "What is -p2p file sharing?" both sides have it right, and both sides have it -wrong. One side says, "File sharing is just like two kids taping each +unfairly enough, the copyright wars,the more I think we're dealing +with a chimera. For example, in the battle over the questionWhat is +p2p file sharing?both sides have it right, and both sides have it +wrong. One side says,File sharing is just like two kids taping each others' records—the sort of thing we've been doing for the last -thirty years without any question at all." That's true, at least in +thirty years without any question at all.That's true, at least in part. When I tell my best friend to try out a new CD that I've bought, but rather than just send the CD, I point him to my p2p server, that is, in all relevant respects, just like what every executive in every @@ -8663,15 +8711,15 @@ recording company no doubt did as a kid: sharing music. But the description is also false in part. For when my p2p server is on a p2p network through which anyone can get access to my music, then sure, my friends can get access, but it stretches the meaning of -"friends" beyond recognition to say "my ten thousand best friends" can +friendsbeyond recognition to saymy ten thousand best friendscan get access. Whether or not sharing my music with my best friend is -what "we have always been allowed to do," we have not always been -allowed to share music with "our ten thousand best friends." +whatwe have always been allowed to do,we have not always been +allowed to share music withour ten thousand best friends.-Likewise, when the other side says, "File sharing is just like walking +Likewise, when the other side says, File sharing is just like walking into a Tower Records and taking a CD off the shelf and walking out -with it," that's true, at least in part. If, after Lyle Lovett +with it,that's true, at least in part. If, after Lyle Lovett (finally) releases a new album, rather than buying it, I go to Kazaa and find a free copy to take, that is very much like stealing a copy from Tower. @@ -8708,14 +8756,14 @@ implemented.For an excellent summary, see the report prepared by GartnerG2 and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, -"Copyright and Digital Media in a Post-Napster World," 27 June 2003, + Copyright and Digital Media in a Post-Napster World,27 June 2003, available atlink #33 . Reps. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) and Howard L. Berman (D-Calif.) have introduced a bill that would treat unauthorized on-line copying as a felony offense with punishments ranging as high -as five years imprisonment; see Jon Healey, "House Bill Aims to Up -Stakes on Piracy,"Los Angeles Times , 17 July 2003, available at +as five years imprisonment; see Jon Healey,House Bill Aims to Up +Stakes on Piracy,Los Angeles Times , 17 July 2003, available atlink #34 . Civil penalties are currently set at $150,000 per copied song. For a recent (and unsuccessful) legal challenge to the RIAA's demand that an ISP @@ -8728,13 +8776,13 @@ arsenal in its prosecution of file sharers. Settlements ranging from $12,000 to $17,500 for four students accused of heavy file sharing on university networks must have seemed a mere pittance next to the $98 billion the RIAA could seek should the matter proceed to court. See -Elizabeth Young, "Downloading Could Lead to Fines," redandblack.com, +Elizabeth Young,Downloading Could Lead to Fines,redandblack.com, August 2003, available atlink #35 . For an example of the RIAA's targeting of student file sharing, and of the subpoenas issued to universities to reveal student file-sharer -identities, see James Collins, "RIAA Steps Up Bid to Force BC, MIT to -Name Students,"Boston Globe , 8 August 2003, D3, available at +identities, see James Collins,RIAA Steps Up Bid to Force BC, MIT to +Name Students,Boston Globe , 8 August 2003, D3, available atlink #36 .Conyers, John, Jr. @@ -8770,7 +8818,7 @@ never had before. And in this extremism, many an opportunity for new innovation and new creativity will be lost. Berman, Howard L. -I'm not talking about the opportunities for kids to "steal" music. My +I'm not talking about the opportunities for kids to stealmusic. My focus instead is the commercial and cultural innovation that this war will also kill. We have never seen the power to innovate spread so broadly among our citizens, and we have just begun to see the @@ -8816,7 +8864,7 @@ Congressional Testimony File.In April 2001, eMusic.com was purchased by Vivendi Universal, -one of "the major labels." Its position on these matters has now +one of @@ -8831,7 +8879,7 @@ and will kill opportunities that could be extraordinarily valuable.the major labels.Its position on these matters has now changed.Vivendi Universal CHAPTER TWELVE: Harms -To fight "piracy," to protect "property," the content industry has +To fight piracy,to protectproperty,the content industry has launched a war. Lobbying and lots of campaign contributions have now brought the government into this war. As with any war, this one will have both direct and collateral damage. As with any war of @@ -8839,23 +8887,23 @@ prohibition, these damages will be suffered most by our own people.My aim so far has been to describe the consequences of this war, in -particular, the consequences for "free culture." But my aim now is to +particular, the consequences for free culture.But my aim now is to extend this description of consequences into an argument. Is this war justified?In my view, it is not. There is no good reason why this time, for the first time, the law should defend the old against the new, just when the -power of the property called "intellectual property" is at its greatest in +power of the property called intellectual propertyis at its greatest in our history.Causby, Thomas Lee Causby, Tinie -Yet "common sense" does not see it this way. Common sense is still on +Yet common sensedoes not see it this way. Common sense is still on the side of the Causbys and the content industry. The extreme claims of control in the name of property still resonate; the uncritical -rejection of "piracy" still has play. +rejection ofpiracystill has play.@@ -8883,11 +8931,11 @@ weave together a string—a mash-up— of songs from your favorite artists in a collage and make it available on the Net. -This digital "capturing and sharing" is in part an extension of the +This digital capturing and sharingis in part an extension of the capturing and sharing that has always been integral to our culture, and in part it is something new. It is continuous with the Kodak, but it explodes the boundaries of Kodak-like technologies. The technology -of digital "capturing and sharing" promises a world of extraordinarily +of digitalcapturing and sharingpromises a world of extraordinarily diverse creativity that can be easily and broadly shared. And as that creativity is applied to democracy, it will enable a broad range of citizens to use technology to express and criticize and contribute to @@ -8929,8 +8977,8 @@ million.@@ -8941,10 +8989,10 @@ suffering. See Lynne W. Jeter, Disconnected: Deceit and Betrayal at WorldCom (Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2003), 176, 204; for details of -the settlement, see MCI press release, "MCI Wins U.S. District Court -Approval for SEC Settlement" (7 July 2003), available at +the settlement, see MCI press release,MCI Wins U.S. District Court +Approval for SEC Settlement(7 July 2003), available atlink #37 .Worldcom The bill, modeled after California's tort reform model, was passed in the House of Representatives but defeated in a Senate vote in July 2003. For -an overview, see Tanya Albert, "Measure Stalls in Senate: `We'll Be Back,' -Say Tort Reformers," amednews.com, 28 July 2003, available at +an overview, see Tanya Albert, @@ -9030,13 +9078,13 @@ tradition that prides itself on the rule of law.Measure Stalls in Senate: `We'll Be Back,' +Say Tort Reformers,amednews.com, 28 July 2003, available atlink #38 , -and "Senate Turns Back Malpractice Caps," CBSNews.com, 9 July 2003, +andSenate Turns Back Malpractice Caps,CBSNews.com, 9 July 2003, available atlink #39 . President Bush has continued to urge tort reform in recent months. @@ -8960,7 +9008,7 @@ The consequence of this legal uncertainty, tied to these extremely high penalties, is that an extraordinary amount of creativity will either never be exercised, or never be exercised in the open. We drive this creative process underground by branding the modern-day Walt -Disneys "pirates." We make it impossible for businesses to rely upon a +Disneyspirates.We make it impossible for businesses to rely upon a public domain, because the boundaries of the public domain are designed to @@ -8971,16 +9019,16 @@ was the case in the Soviet Union, though for very different reasons, we will begin to see a world of underground art—not because the message is necessarily political, or because the subject is controversial, but because the very act of creating the art is legally -fraught. Already, exhibits of "illegal art" tour the United +fraught. Already, exhibits ofillegal arttour the United States.- In what does their "illegality" consist? + In what does their -See Danit Lidor, "Artists Just Wanna Be Free," Wired , 7 July +See Danit Lidor,Artists Just Wanna Be Free,Wired , 7 July 2003, available atlink #40 . For an overview of the exhibition, seelink #41 .illegalityconsist? In the act of mixing the culture around us with an expression that is critical or reflective.Judges and lawyers can tell themselves that fair use provides adequate -"breathing room" between regulation by the law and the access the law + breathing roombetween regulation by the law and the access the law should allow. But it is a measure of how out of touch our legal system has become that anyone actually believes this. The rules that publishers impose upon writers, the rules that film distributors impose upon filmmakers, the rules that newspapers impose upon journalists— these are the real laws governing creativity. And -these rules have little relationship to the "law" with which judges +these rules have little relationship to thelawwith which judges comfort themselves.@@ -9046,7 +9094,7 @@ dollars to even defend against a copyright infringement claim, and which would never return to the wrongfully accused defendant anything of the costs she suffered to defend her right to speak—in that world, the astonishingly broad regulations that pass under the name -"copyright" silence speech and creativity. And in that world, it takes + @@ -9061,8 +9109,8 @@ expressed. And while a lot of stuff may [still] be created, it still won't get distributed. Even if the stuff gets made … you're not going to get it distributed in the mainstream media unless -you've got a little note from a lawyer saying, "This has been -cleared." You're not even going to get it on PBS without that kind of +you've got a little note from a lawyer saying,copyrightsilence speech and creativity. And in that world, it takes a studied blindness for people to continue to believe they live in a culture that is free.This has been +cleared.You're not even going to get it on PBS without that kind of permission. That's the point at which they control it.
free marketevery place I've spoken of +
free culture.The point is the same, even if the interests affecting culture are more fundamental.
nuclear pallthat has fallen over the Valley—has been learned.
Universal, EMI Sue Napster Investor,
The Music +Revolution Will Not Be Digitized,Salon.com, 1 June 2001, available at
Online Music Services Besieged,
Driving in Cars with MP3s,
your money or your +lifeoffers, governed in the end not by courts but by the threats that the law empowers copyright holders to exercise. It is a system that will obviously and necessarily stifle new innovation. It is hard enough to start a company. It is impossibly hard if that company is @@ -9271,7 +9319,7 @@ constantly threatened by litigation. The point is not that businesses should have a right to start illegal -enterprises. The point is the definition of "illegal." The law is a +enterprises. The point is the definition of
illegal.The law is a mess of uncertainty. We have no good way to know how it should apply to new technologies. Yet by reversing our tradition of judicial deference, and by embracing the astonishingly high penalties that @@ -9285,7 +9333,7 @@ much less creativity.
reallaw is, realism about the effect of law in both contexts is the same. This wildly punitive system of regulation will systematically stifle creativity and innovation. It will protect some industries and some creators, but it will harm industry and @@ -9321,10 +9369,10 @@ technology of the Internet so that it better protects their content. The motivation for this response is obvious. The Internet enables the efficient spread of content. That efficiency is a feature of the Internet's design. But from the perspective of the content industry, -this feature is a "bug." The efficient spread of content means that +this feature is a
bug.The efficient spread of content means that content distributors have a harder time controlling the distribution of content. One obvious response to this efficiency is thus to make -the Internet less efficient. If the Internet enables "piracy," then, +the Internet less efficient. If the Internet enables
piracy,then, this response says, we should break the kneecaps of the Internet.
Copyright and Digital Media in a Post-Napster World,GartnerG2 and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School (2003), 33–35, available at
broadcast flagthat would be required on any device capable of transmitting digital video (i.e., a computer), and that would disable the copying of any content that is marked with a broadcast flag. Other members of Congress have proposed immunizing content providers from @@ -9363,7 +9411,7 @@ In March 2002, a broad coalition of technology companies, led by Intel, tried to get Congress to see the harm that such legislation would impose.
Tech Execs Square Off Over Piracy,Newsbytes, February 2002 (Entertainment).
broadcast flagthat would disable copying of that content. And in March of the same year, Senator Fritz Hollings introduced the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act, which mandated copyright protection -technology in all digital media devices. See GartnerG2, "Copyright and -Digital Media in a Post-Napster World," 27 June 2003, 33–34, +technology in all digital media devices. See GartnerG2,
Copyright and +Digital Media in a Post-Napster World,27 June 2003, 33–34, available at
radio performanceunless he or she is also the composer. So, for example if Marilyn Monroe had recorded a -version of "Happy Birthday"—to memorialize her famous +version of
Happy Birthday—to memorialize her famous performance before President Kennedy at Madison Square Garden— then whenever that recording was played on the radio, the current -copyright owners of "Happy Birthday" would get some money, whereas +copyright owners of
Happy Birthdaywould get some money, whereas Marilyn Monroe would not.
tune into an Internet radio station in Berlin while sitting in San Francisco, even though there's no way for me to tune in to a regular radio station much beyond the San Francisco metropolitan area. @@ -9528,8 +9576,8 @@ Lessing, 239.
vested interests, habits, customs and +legislation
Happy Birthdayon the air,
Copyright as Entry Policy: The Case of Digital +Distribution,
This was not confusion, these are just old-fashioned entry barriers. Analog radio stations are protected from digital entrants, reducing entry in radio and diversity. Yes, this is done in the name of getting royalties to copyright holders, but, absent the play of powerful -interests, that could have been done in a media-neutral way." +interests, that could have been done in a media-neutral way.
How do you come up with a rate that's so much higher? Why is it worth more than radio? Because here we have hundreds of thousands of webcasters who want to pay, and that should establish the market rate, and if you set the rate so high, you're going to drive the small webcasters out of -business. …" +business. …
Well, we don't really model this as an industry with thousands of webcasters,(Emphasis added.)we think it should be an industry with, you know, five or seven big players who can pay a -high rate and it's a stable, predictable market ." (Emphasis +high rate and it's a stable, predictable market.
The Music Downloading Deluge,Pew Internet and American Life Project (24 April 2001), available at
The Labels Strike Back: N.Y. Girl Settles RIAA Case,
Alcohol Consumption During +Prohibition,
Tax +Compliance,
free society,but an endless array of ordinary behavior is regulated within our society. And as a result, a huge proportion of Americans regularly violate at least some law.
ethics.As my colleague Charlie Nesson told a class at Stanford, each year law schools admit thousands of students who have illegally downloaded music, illegally consumed alcohol and sometimes drugs, illegally worked without paying taxes, @@ -9843,7 +9891,7 @@ keep client funds separate, or honor a demand to disclose a document that will mean that your case is over. Generations of Americans—more significantly in some parts of America than in others, but still, everywhere in America today—can't live their -lives both normally and legally, since "normally" entails a certain +lives both normally and legally, since
normallyentails a certain degree of illegality.
sharing.We need to be able to +call these twenty million Americans
citizens,not
felons.
useof the recordings is free.
freeto copy, +or
rip,music from my records onto a computer hard disk. Indeed, +Apple Corporation went so far as to suggest that
freedomwas a +right: In a series of commercials, Apple endorsed the
Rip, Mix, Burncapacities of digital technologies.
useof my records is certainly valuable. I have begun a large process at home of ripping all of my and my wife's CDs, and storing them in one archive. Then, using Apple's iTunes, or a wonderful program called Andromeda, we can build different play lists of our @@ -9949,8 +9997,8 @@ these protection technologies would effectively destroy the archiving use of CDs. The technology, in other words, would force us all back to the world where we either listened to music by manipulating pieces of -plastic or were part of a massively complex "digital rights -management" system. +plastic or were part of a massively complex
digital rights +managementsystem.
collateral damagethat
arises whenever you turn a very large percentage of the population into -criminals." This is the collateral damage to civil liberties +criminals.This is the collateral damage to civil liberties generally.
If you can treat someone as a putative lawbreaker,von Lohmann explains,
Oh, well, +but that person's a criminal, a lawbreaker.Well, what this campaign against file sharing has done is turn a remarkable percentage of the -American Internet-using population into "lawbreakers." +American Internet-using population into
lawbreakers.
RIAA's Lawsuits Meet Surprised Targets; Single +Mother in Calif., 12-Year-Old Girl in N.Y. Among Defendants,+
Worried Parents Pull Plug on File `Stealing'; With the Music Industry Cracking Down on File Swapping, Parents are Yanking Software from Home PCs to Avoid -Being Sued,"Orlando Sentinel Tribune , 30 August 2003, C1; Jefferson -Graham, "Recording Industry Sues Parents,"USA Today , 15 September -2003, 4D; John Schwartz, "She Says She's No Music Pirate. No Snoop -Fan, Either,"New York Times , 25 September 2003, C1; Margo Varadi, "Is -Brianna a Criminal?"Toronto Star , 18 September 2003, P7. +Being Sued,
Recording Industry Sues Parents,
She Says She's No Music Pirate. No Snoop +Fan, Either,
Is +Brianna a Criminal?
Revealed: How RIAA Tracks Downloaders: Music Industry Discloses +Some Methods Used,CNN.com, available at
fingerprint.
cooperatingwith the RIAA's espionage, and she hasn't properly protected her content from the network (do you know how to do that yourself ?), then the RIAA will be able to identify your daughter -as a "criminal." And under the rules that universities are beginning +as a
criminal.And under the rules that universities are beginning to deploy,
Cambridge: On Campus, Pirates Are Not Penitent,+
Four Students Sued over Music Sites; Industry Group Targets File Sharing at -Colleges,"Washington Post , 4 April 2003, E1; Elizabeth Armstrong, -"Students `Rip, Mix, Burn' at Their Own Risk,"Christian Science -Monitor , 2 September 2003, 20; Robert Becker and Angela Rozas, "Music +Colleges,
Students `Rip, Mix, Burn' at Their Own Risk,
Music Pirate Hunt Turns to Loyola; Two Students Names Are Handed Over; -Lawsuit Possible,"Chicago Tribune , 16 July 2003, 1C; Beth Cox, "RIAA -Trains Antipiracy Guns on Universities,"Internet News , 30 January +Lawsuit Possible,
RIAA +Trains Antipiracy Guns on Universities,
Download Warning 101: Freshman Orientation This Fall to Include Record Industry Warnings Against File -Sharing,"San Francisco Chronicle , 11 August 2003, E11; "Raid, Letters -Are Weapons at Universities,"USA Today , 26 September 2000, 3D. +Sharing,
Raid, Letters +Are Weapons at Universities,
contrabandas presumptive of guilt. And as any number of college students @@ -10140,10 +10188,10 @@ million of them.
criminalsunder the law, and when the law could achieve the same objective— securing rights to authors—without these millions being -considered "criminals," who is the villain? Americans or the law? +considered
criminals,who is the villain? Americans or the law? Which is American, a constant war on our own people or a concerted effort through our democracy to change our law?
noncommercial publishing industry,which before the Internet was limited to people with large egos or with political or social causes. But with the Internet, it includes a wide range of individuals and groups dedicated to spreading culture @@ -10302,15 +10350,15 @@ more than 1 million patents will pass into the public domain. This was the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA), enacted in memory of the congressman and former musician Sonny Bono, who, his widow, Mary Bono, says, believed that -"copyrights should be forever."
copyrights should be forever.
Sonny [Bono] wanted the term of copyright protection to last forever. I am informed by staff that such a change would violate the Constitution. I invite all of you to work with me to strengthen our copyright laws in all of the ways available to us. As you know, there is also Jack Valenti's proposal for a term to last forever less one day. Perhaps the Committee may look at that next -Congress," 144 Cong. Rec. H9946, 9951-2 (October 7, 1998). +Congress,144 Cong. Rec. H9946, 9951-2 (October 7, 1998).
commerce among the several +statesor
declare War.But here, the
somethingis something quite +specific—to
promote … Progress—through means that +are also specific— by
securing
exclusive Rights(i.e., +copyrights)
for limited Times.
limitedwill have no practical effect. If every time a copyright is about to expire, Congress has the power to extend its term, then Congress can achieve -what the Constitution plainly forbids—perpetual terms "on the -installment plan," as Professor Peter Jaszi so nicely put it. +what the Constitution plainly forbids—perpetual terms
on the +installment plan,as Professor Peter Jaszi so nicely put it.
Corruptionnot in the sense that representatives are +bribed. Rather,
corruptionin the sense that the system induces the beneficiaries of Congress's acts to raise and give money to Congress to induce it to act. There's only so much time; there's only so much Congress can do. Why not limit its actions to those things it must @@ -10400,55 +10448,55 @@ Your financial adviser comes to your board meeting with a very grim report:
Next year,the adviser announces,
our copyrights in works A, B, and C will expire. That means that after next year, we will no longer be receiving the annual royalty check of $100,000 from the publishers of -those works. +those works.
There's a proposal in Congress, however,she continues,
that could change this. A few congressmen are floating a bill to extend the terms of copyright by twenty years. That bill would be extraordinarily -valuable to us. So we should hope this bill passes." +valuable to us. So we should hope this bill passes.
Hope?a fellow board member says.
Can't we be doing something +about it?
Well, obviously, yes,the adviser responds.
We could contribute to the campaigns of a number of representatives to try to assure that -they support the bill." +they support the bill.
How much +would we get if this extension were passed?you ask the adviser.
How +much is it worth?
Well,the adviser says,
if you're confident that you will continue to get at least $100,000 a year from these copyrights, and you use the `discount rate' that we use to evaluate estate investments (6 percent), -then this law would be worth $1,146,000 to the estate." +then this law would be worth $1,146,000 to the estate.
So you're saying it would be worth it for us to pay more than $1,000,000 in campaign contributions if we were confident those contributions -would assure that the bill was passed?" +would assure that the bill was passed?
Absolutely,the adviser responds.
It is worth it to you to contribute up to the `present value' of the income you expect from these -copyrights. Which for us means over $1,000,000." +copyrights. Which for us means over $1,000,000.
theoryabout incentives was proved real. Ten of the thirteen original sponsors of the act in the House received the maximum contribution from Disney's political action committee; in the Senate, eight of the twelve sponsors received contributions.
Disney Lobbying for Copyright Extension No Mickey +Mouse Effort; Congress OKs Bill Granting Creators 20 More Years,
Fair Use No More?: Copyright in the Information +Age,available at
Disney in Washington: The Mouse That Roars,
limited.If they could extend it once, they would extend it again and again and again.
commerce among the several states(aka +
interstate +commerce), the Supreme Court had interpreted that power to include the power to regulate any activity that merely affected interstate commerce. @@ -10553,7 +10601,7 @@ commerce. The Supreme Court, the government said, was not in the position to second-guess Congress.
We pause to consider the implications of the government's arguments,the Chief Justice wrote.
limited timesnotwithstanding.
stopping pointto Congress's power over terms, though the Constitution expressly states that there is such a limit. Thus, the same principle applied to the power to grant copyrights should entail that Congress is not allowed to extend the @@ -10596,7 +10644,7 @@ politics—a conservative Supreme Court, which believed in states' rights, using its power over Congress to advance its own personal political preferences. But I rejected that view of the Supreme Court's decision. Indeed, shortly after the decision, I wrote an article -demonstrating the "fidelity" in such an interpretation of the +demonstrating the
fidelityin such an interpretation of the Constitution. The idea that the Supreme Court decides cases based upon its politics struck me as extraordinarily boring. I was not going to devote my life to teaching constitutional law if these nine Justices @@ -10624,7 +10672,7 @@ Some people view the public domain with contempt. In their brief before the Supreme Court, the Nashville Songwriters Association -wrote that the public domain is nothing more than "legal piracy."
legal piracy.
Rhapsody in Blue.These works are too valuable for copyright owners to ignore. But the real harm to our society from copyright extensions is not that Mickey Mouse remains @@ -10719,9 +10767,9 @@ of such records—especially since the person who registered is not necessarily the current owner. And we're just talking about 1930!
But there isn't a list of who owns property generally,the +apologists for the system respond.
Why should there be a list of +copyright owners?
High Court Scene of Showdown on Copyright Law,+
Classic Movies, Songs, Books at Stake; Supreme Court Hears Arguments Today on Striking -Down Copyright Extension,"Orlando Sentinel Tribune , 9 October 2002. +Down Copyright Extension,
But can't you just restore the film, distribute it, and then pay the +copyright owner when she shows up?Sure, if you want to commit a felony. And even if you're not worried about committing a felony, when she does show up, she'll have the right to sue you for all the profits you have made. So, if you're successful, you can be fairly confident you'll be @@ -10873,8 +10921,8 @@ fraction has continuing commercial value. For that tiny fraction, the copyright is a crucially important legal device. For that tiny fraction, the copyright creates incentives to produce and distribute the creative -work. For that tiny fraction, the copyright acts as an "engine of -free expression." +work. For that tiny fraction, the copyright acts as an
engine of +free expression.
But if digital technologies lower the costs for Brewster Kahle, then they will lower the costs for Random House, too. So won't Random House do as well as Brewster Kahle in spreading -culture widely?" +culture widely?
the marketwould demand. But if you think the role of a library is bigger than this—if you think its role is to archive culture, whether there's a demand for any particular bit of that culture or not—then we can't count on the @@ -10999,7 +11047,7 @@ and 1946 is not commercially available. However much you love the commercial market, if access is a value, then 6 percent is a failure to provide that value.
The Myth of the 1976 Copyright `Chaos' Theory,20 December 2002, available at
limited Timesrequirement, and (2) that extending terms by another twenty years violated the First Amendment.
limited Timesonly. His argument was as elegant as it was simple: If Congress can extend existing terms, then there is no -"stopping point" to Congress's power under the Copyright Clause. The +
stopping pointto Congress's power under the Copyright Clause. The power to extend existing terms means Congress is not required to grant -terms that are "limited." Thus, Judge Sentelle argued, the court had -to interpret the term "limited Times" to give it meaning. And the best +terms that are
limited.Thus, Judge Sentelle argued, the court had +to interpret the term
limited Timesto give it meaning. And the best interpretation, Judge Sentelle argued, would be to deny Congress the power to extend existing terms.
en bancto hear the case.
importantto the Supreme Court. It had to seem as if dramatic harm were being done to free -speech and free culture; otherwise, they would never vote against "the -most powerful media companies in the world." +speech and free culture; otherwise, they would never vote against
the +most powerful media companies in the world.
rightas in
true,I thought, but it is
wrongas in
it just shouldn't be +that way.As I believed that any faithful interpretation of what the framers of our Constitution did would yield the conclusion that the CTEA was unconstitutional, and as I believed that any faithful interpretation @@ -11154,10 +11202,10 @@ organization, Eagle Forum, had been an opponent of the CTEA from the very beginning. Mrs. Schlafly viewed the CTEA as a sellout by Congress. In November 1998, she wrote a stinging editorial attacking the Republican Congress for allowing the law to pass. As she wrote, -"Do you sometimes wonder why bills that create a financial windfall to +
Do you sometimes wonder why bills that create a financial windfall to narrow special interests slide easily through the intricate legislative process, while bills that benefit the general public seem -to get bogged down?" The answer, as the editorial documented, was the +to get bogged down?The answer, as the editorial documented, was the power of money. Schlafly enumerated Disney's contributions to the key players on the committees. It was money, not justice, that gave Mickey Mouse twenty more years in Disney's control, Schlafly argued. @@ -11218,7 +11266,7 @@ the list of Nobel winners demonstrates, spanned the political spectrum. Their conclusions were powerful: There was no plausible claim that extending the terms of existing copyrights would do anything to increase incentives to create. Such extensions were -nothing more than "rent-seeking"—the fancy term economists use +nothing more than
rent-seeking—the fancy term economists use to describe special-interest legislation gone wild.
friendsincluded historians or economists. The briefs on the other side of the case were written exclusively by major media companies, congressmen, and copyright holders. @@ -11273,19 +11321,19 @@ Dr. Seuss's representatives, for example, argued that it was better for the Dr. Seuss estate to control what happened to Dr. Seuss's work— better than allowing it to fall into the public domain—because if this creativity were in the public -domain, then people could use it to "glorify drugs or to create -pornography."
glorify drugs or to create +pornography.
protectionof the work of George Gershwin. They refuse, for example, to license
Immortal Words, Immortal Royalties? Even Mickey +Mouse Joins the Fray,
Give us twenty years to control the speech about these icons of American culture. We'll do -better with them than anyone else." Congress of course likes to reward +better with them than anyone else.Congress of course likes to reward the popular and famous by giving them what they want. But when Congress gives people an exclusive right to speak in a certain way, that's just what the First Amendment is traditionally meant to block. @@ -11317,7 +11365,7 @@ for this case. Early on, as I said, I set the strategy.
the Conservatives.The other we called
the Rest.The Conservatives included Chief Justice Rehnquist, Justice O'Connor, Justice Scalia, Justice Kennedy, and Justice Thomas. These five had been the most consistent in limiting Congress's power. They were the @@ -11367,7 +11415,7 @@ had consistently argued for limits in the context of intellectual property generally. We were fairly confident he would recognize limits here.
the Restshowed most clearly where our focus had to be: on the Conservatives. To win this case, we had to crack open these five and get at least a majority to go our way. Thus, the single overriding argument that animated our claim rested on the @@ -11384,7 +11432,7 @@ responsible. We would get the Court to see that just as with the case, under the government's argument here, Congress would always have unlimited power to extend existing terms. If anything was plain about Congress's power under the Progress Clause, it was that this power was -supposed to be "limited." Our aim would be to get the Court to +supposed to be
limited.Our aim would be to get the Court to reconcile
consistencyshould be kept in perspective. Congress extended existing terms once in the first hundred years of the Republic. It then extended existing terms once again in the next fifty. Those rare @@ -11421,10 +11469,10 @@ There was no reason it couldn't intervene here. Oral argument was scheduled for the first week in October. I arrived in D.C. two weeks before the argument. During those two -weeks, I was repeatedly "mooted" by lawyers who had volunteered to +weeks, I was repeatedly
mootedby lawyers who had volunteered to -help in the case. Such "moots" are basically practice rounds, where +help in the case. Such
mootsare basically practice rounds, where wannabe justices fire questions at wannabe winners.
I'm just afraid that unless they really see the harm, they won't be willing to upset this practice that the government says has been a consistent practice for two hundred years. You have to make them see the harm—passionately get them to see the harm. For if they -don't see that, then we haven't any chance of winning." +don't see that, then we haven't any chance of winning.
that this flies directly in the face +of what the framers had in mind.But my response again and again was to emphasize limits on Congress's power.
@@ -11711,7 +11759,7 @@ said that under the current term, a copyright gave an author 99.8 percent of the value of a perpetual term. Breyer said we were wrong, that the actual number was 99.9997 percent of a perpetual term. Either way, the point was clear: If the Constitution said a term had to be -"limited," and the existing term was so long as to be effectively +limited,and the existing term was so long as to be effectively unlimited, then it was unconstitutional.
Conservatives.It would have been one thing for them to have explained why the principle of
originalism—to first understand the framers' text, interpreted in their context, in light of the structure of the Constitution. That method had produced -
originalistrulings. Where was their +
originalismnow?
The Court is not ready,Peter Jaszi said; this issue should not be raised until it is.
powerful and wealthyline is a bit unfair. But the punch in the face felt exactly like that.
grand experimentwe call the +
public domainis over? When I can make light of it, I think,
Honey, +I shrunk the Constitution.But I can rarely make light of it. We had in our Constitution a commitment to free culture. In the case that I fathered, the Supreme Court effectively renounced that commitment. A better lawyer would have made them see differently. @@ -11890,9 +11938,9 @@ It was an act of contrition. During the whole of the flight from San Francisco to Washington, I had heard over and over again in my head the same advice from Don Ayer: You need to make them see why it is important. And alternating with that command was the question of -Justice Kennedy: "For all these years the act has impeded progress in +Justice Kennedy:
For all these years the act has impeded progress in science and the useful arts. I just don't see any empirical evidence for -that." And so, having failed in the argument of constitutional principle, +that.And so, having failed in the argument of constitutional principle, finally, I turned to an argument of politics.
Public Domain Enhancement Actor the
Copyright +Term Deregulation Act.Either way, the essence of the idea is clear and obvious: Remove copyright where it is doing nothing except blocking access and the spread of knowledge. Leave it for as long as Congress allows for those works where its worth is at least $1. But for @@ -11954,9 +12002,9 @@ Until the 1908 Berlin Act of the Berne Convention, national copyright legislation sometimes made protection depend upon compliance with formalities such as registration, deposit, and affixation of notice of the author's claim of copyright. However, starting with the 1908 act, -every text of the Convention has provided that "the enjoyment and the -exercise" of rights guaranteed by the Convention "shall not be subject -to any formality." The prohibition against formalities is presently +every text of the Convention has provided that
the enjoyment and the +exerciseof rights guaranteed by the Convention
shall not be subject +to any formality.The prohibition against formalities is presently embodied in Article 5(2) of the Paris Text of the Berne Convention. Many countries continue to impose some form of deposit or registration requirement, albeit not as a condition of @@ -11968,7 +12016,7 @@ of Authors where the author's true name can be filed in the case of anonymous or pseudonymous works. Paul Goldstein,
natural right.Natural rights don't need forms to exist. Traditions, like the Anglo-American tradition that required copyright owners to follow form if their rights were to be protected, did not, the Europeans thought, properly @@ -11979,7 +12027,7 @@ creativity, not upon the special favor of the government. That's great rhetoric. It sounds wonderfully romantic. But it is absurd copyright policy. It is absurd especially for authors, because a world without formalities harms the creator. The ability to spread -"Walt Disney creativity" is destroyed when there is no simple way to +
Walt Disney creativityis destroyed when there is no simple way to know what's protected and what's not.
naturally,and he can assert that right against anyone who would steal the table, whether or not he has informed the government of his ownership of the table. @@ -12064,9 +12112,9 @@ a world without formalities. Complex, expensive,
get.Because we live in a system without formalities, there is no way easily to build upon or use culture from our past. If copyright -terms were, as Justice Story said they would be, "short," then this +terms were, as Justice Story said they would be,
short,then this wouldn't matter much. For fourteen years, under the framers' system, a work would be presumptively controlled. After fourteen years, it would be presumptively uncontrolled. @@ -12129,8 +12177,8 @@ One representative, Zoe Lofgren of California, went so far as to get the bill drafted. The draft solved any problem with international law. It imposed the simplest requirement upon copyright owners possible. In May 2003, it looked as if the bill would be -introduced. On May 16, I posted on the Eldred Act blog, "we are -close." There was a general reaction in the blog community that +introduced. On May 16, I posted on the Eldred Act blog,
we are +close.There was a general reaction in the blog community that something good might happen here.
firmly rejected the central +concept in the proposed bill—that copyrights be renewed. That +was true, but irrelevant, as Congress's
firm rejectionhad occurred long before the Internet made subsequent uses much more likely. Second, they argued that the proposal would harm poor copyright @@ -12155,7 +12203,7 @@ term would encourage restoration work. Maybe in the case of the small percentage of work covered by copyright law that is still commercially valuable, but again this was irrelevant, as the proposal would not cut off the extended term unless the $1 fee was not paid. Fourth, the MPAA -argued that the bill would impose "enormous" costs, since a +argued that the bill would impose
enormouscosts, since a registration system is not free. True enough, but those costs are certainly less than the costs of clearing the rights for a copyright whose owner is not known. Fifth, they worried about the risks if the @@ -12207,8 +12255,8 @@ Act, then, finally, there is an example that lays bare the naked selfinterest driving this war. This act would free an extraordinary range of content that is otherwise unused. It wouldn't interfere with any copyright owner's desire to exercise continued control over his -content. It would simply liberate what Kevin Kelly calls the "Dark -Content" that fills archives around the world. So when the warriors +content. It would simply liberate what Kevin Kelly calls the
Dark +Contentthat fills archives around the world. So when the warriors oppose a change like this, we should ask one simple question:
propertybut the rejection of a tradition. Their aim is not simply to protect what is theirs.
propertyin intellectual property. Common sense supports it, and so long as it does, the assaults will rain down upon the technologies of -the Internet. The consequence will be an increasing "permission -society." The past can be cultivated only if you can identify the +the Internet. The consequence will be an increasing
permission +society.The past can be cultivated only if you can identify the owner and gain permission to build upon his work. The future will be controlled by this dead (and often unfindable) hand of the past.
Final Report: Integrating +Intellectual Property Rights and Development Policy(London, 2002), available at
parallel importation,and it is generally permitted under international trade law and is specifically permitted within the European Union.
The U.S. government pressured South Africa … not to permit compulsory licensing or parallel -imports."+imports.
New Crusade to Lower AIDS Drug Costs: Africa's +Needs at Odds with Firms' Profit Motive,
compulsory licenses and gray markets pose a threat to the entire +system of intellectual property protection); Robert Weissman,
AIDS and Developing Countries: Democratizing Access to Essential -Medicines,"Foreign Policy in Focus 4:23 (August 1999), available at +Medicines,
TRIPS, Pharmaceutical Patents, and the HIV/AIDS Crisis: Finding the Proper Balance Between -Intellectual Property Rights and Compassion, a Synopsis,"Widener Law +Intellectual Property Rights and Compassion, a Synopsis,
intellectual propertywould be violated that these drugs should not flow into Africa. It was a principle about the -importance of "intellectual property" that led these government actors +importance of
intellectual propertythat led these government actors to intervene against the South African response to AIDS.
sanctityof an idea? What possible justification could there ever be for a policy that results in so many deaths? What exactly is the insanity that would allow so many to die for such an abstraction? @@ -12464,17 +12521,17 @@ problems of technology. They could be overcome.
How is it you can sell this HIV drug in Africa for only $1 a pill, but the same -drug would cost an American $1,500?" Because there is no "sound -bite" answer to that question, its effect would be to induce regulation +drug would cost an American $1,500?Because there is no
sound +biteanswer to that question, its effect would be to induce regulation of prices in America. The drug companies thus avoid this spiral by avoiding the first step. They reinforce the idea that property should be sacred. They adopt a rational strategy in an irrational context, with the unintended consequence that perhaps millions die. And that rational strategy thus becomes framed in terms of this ideal—the sanctity of an -idea called "intellectual property." +idea called
intellectual property.
piracy,and devastate a culture for creativity. They defend +the idea of
creative property,while transforming real creators into modern-day sharecroppers. They are insulted by the idea that rights should be balanced, even though each of the major players in this content war was itself a beneficiary of a more balanced ideal. The hypocrisy reeks. Yet in a city like Washington, hypocrisy is not even noticed. Powerful lobbies, complex issues, and MTV attention spans -produce the "perfect storm" for free culture. +produce the
perfect stormfor free culture.
The Quiet War over Open-Source,
Global Group's +Shift on `Open Source' Meeting Spurs Stir,
U.S. Official +Opposes `Open Source' Talks at WIPO,
open and collaborative projects to create public +goods.These are projects that have been successful in producing public goods without relying exclusively upon a proprietary use of intellectual property. Examples include the Internet and the World Wide Web, both of which were developed on the basis of protocols in @@ -12560,7 +12622,7 @@ technological companies, including Amersham Biosciences, AstraZeneca, Aventis, Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Hoffmann-La Roche, Glaxo-SmithKline, IBM, Motorola, Novartis, Pfizer, and Searle.) It included the Global Positioning System, which Ronald Reagan set free -in the early 1980s. And it included "open source and free software." +in the early 1980s. And it included
open source and free software.
Information Societyunless one also talked about the range of information and culture that would be free. My talk did not make my immoderate moderator very happy. And she was no doubt correct that the scope of intellectual property protections was ordinarily the @@ -12610,19 +12672,19 @@ very idea of balance in intellectual property had been lost.
open and collaborative projects to create +public goodsseemed perfectly appropriate within the WIPO agenda.
open source +and free software.Microsoft in particular is wary of discussion of the subject. From its perspective, a conference to discuss open source and free software would be like a conference to discuss Apple's operating system. Both open source and free software compete with Microsoft's software. And internationally, many governments have begun to explore requirements that they use open source or free software, -rather than "proprietary software," for their own internal uses. +rather than
proprietary software,for their own internal uses.
free software—and IBM +is emphatically a commercial entity. Thus, to support
open source and +free softwareis not to oppose commercial entities. It is, instead, to support a mode of software development that is different from Microsoft's.
open sourcesoftware or software in the public domain. Microsoft's +principal opposition is to
free softwarelicensed under a
copyleftlicense, meaning a license that requires the licensee to adopt the -same terms on any derivative work. See Bradford L. Smith, "The Future -of Software: Enabling the Marketplace to Decide,"
The Future +of Software: Enabling the Marketplace to Decide,
copyleftlicenses
open source and free +softwareis not to oppose copyright.
Open source and free softwareis not software in the public domain. Instead, like Microsoft's software, the copyright owners of free and open source software insist quite strongly that the terms of their software license be respected @@ -12684,7 +12746,7 @@ was reported to have happened. According to Jonathan Krim of the
open-source software runs counter to the +mission of WIPO, which is to promote intellectual-property rights.+She is quoted as saying,
To hold a meeting which has as its purpose to disclaim or waive such rights seems to us to be contrary to the -goals of WIPO." +goals of WIPO.
copyright. Without it, restrictions imposed by those +licenses wouldn't work. Thus, to say it
runs counterto the mission of promoting intellectual property rights reveals an extraordinary gap in understanding—the sort of mistake that is excusable in a first-year law student, but an embarrassment from a high government official dealing with intellectual property issues.
promoteintellectual property maximally? As I had been scolded at the preparatory conference of WSIS, WIPO is to consider not only how best to protect intellectual property, but also what the best balance of @@ -12740,8 +12802,8 @@ Third, even if one believed that the purpose of WIPO was to maximize intellectual property rights, in our tradition, intellectual property rights are held by individuals and corporations. They get to decide what to do with those rights because, again, they are -
waiveor +
disclaimtheir rights, that is, within our tradition, totally appropriate. When Bill Gates gives away more than $20 billion to do good in the world, that is not inconsistent with the objectives of the property system. That is, on the contrary, just what a property system @@ -12751,19 +12813,19 @@ to do with
which has as its purpose to disclaim or waive such rights,she's saying that WIPO has an interest in interfering with the choices of the individuals who own intellectual property rights. That somehow, -WIPO's objective should be to stop an individual from "waiving" or -"disclaiming" an intellectual property right. That the interest of +WIPO's objective should be to stop an individual from
waivingor +
disclaimingan intellectual property right. That the interest of WIPO is not just that intellectual property rights be maximized, but that they also should be exercised in the most extreme and restrictive way possible.
feudalism.Under feudalism, not only was property held by a relatively small number of individuals and entities. And not only were the rights that ran with that property powerful and extensive. But the feudal system had a @@ -12796,9 +12858,9 @@ that was particularly depressing for me. An anonymous poster wrote,
George, you misunderstand Lessig: He's only talking about the world as -it should be ("the goal of WIPO, and the goal of any government, +it should be ( the goal of WIPO, and the goal of any government, should be to promote the right balance of intellectual property rights, -not simply to promote intellectual property rights"), not as it is. If +not simply to promote intellectual property rights), not as it is. If we were talking about the world as it is, then of course Boland didn't say anything wrong. But in the world @@ -12819,10 +12881,10 @@ whether our government should speak the truth or not.)Obviously, however, the poster was not supporting that idea. Instead, the poster was ridiculing the very idea that in the real world, the -"goal" of a government should be "to promote the right balance" of + goalof a government should beto promote the right balanceof intellectual property. That was obviously silly to him. And it -obviously betrayed, he believed, my own silly utopianism. "Typical for -an academic," the poster might well have continued. +obviously betrayed, he believed, my own silly utopianism.Typical for +an academic,the poster might well have continued.I understand criticism of academic utopianism. I think utopianism is @@ -12832,7 +12894,7 @@ our own country's history). But when it has become silly to suppose that the role of our -government should be to "seek balance," then count me with the silly, +government should be to seek balance,then count me with the silly, for that means that this has become quite serious indeed. If it should be obvious to everyone that the government does not seek balance, that the government is simply the tool of the most powerful lobbyists, that @@ -12893,16 +12955,16 @@ form—that makes their bigness bad. It is therefore significant that so many would rally to demand competition and increased diversity. Still, if the rally is understood as being about bigness alone, it is not terribly surprising. We -Americans have a long history of fighting "big," wisely or not. That -we could be motivated to fight "big" again is not something new. +Americans have a long history of fightingbig,wisely or not. That +we could be motivated to fightbigagain is not something new.It would be something new, and something very important, if an equal number could be rallied to fight the increasing extremism built within -the idea of "intellectual property." Not because balance is alien to +the idea of intellectual property.Not because balance is alien to our tradition; indeed, as I've argued, balance is our tradition. But because the muscle to think critically about the scope of anything -called "property" is not well exercised within this tradition anymore. +calledpropertyis not well exercised within this tradition anymore.If we were Achilles, this would be our heel. This would be the place @@ -12913,42 +12975,42 @@ of our tragedy. As I write these final words, the news is filled with stories about the RIAA lawsuits against almost three hundred individuals. -Eminem has just been sued for "sampling" someone else's +Eminem has just been sued for -John Borland, "RIAA Sues 261 File Swappers," CNET News.com, September +John Borland, RIAA Sues 261 File Swappers,CNET News.com, September 2003, available atlink #65 ; Paul -R. La Monica, "Music Industry Sues Swappers," CNN/Money, 8 September +R. La Monica,Music Industry Sues Swappers,CNN/Money, 8 September 2003, available atlink #66 ; Soni -Sangha and Phyllis Furman with Robert Gearty, "Sued for a Song, -N.Y.C. 12-Yr-Old Among 261 Cited as Sharers,"New York Daily News , 9 -September 2003, 3; Frank Ahrens, "RIAA's Lawsuits Meet Surprised +Sangha and Phyllis Furman with Robert Gearty,Sued for a Song, +N.Y.C. 12-Yr-Old Among 261 Cited as Sharers,New York Daily News , 9 +September 2003, 3; Frank Ahrens,RIAA's Lawsuits Meet Surprised Targets; Single Mother in Calif., 12-Year-Old Girl in N.Y. Among -Defendants,"Washington Post , 10 September 2003, E1; Katie Dean, -"Schoolgirl Settles with RIAA,"Wired News , 10 September 2003, +Defendants,Washington Post , 10 September 2003, E1; Katie Dean, +Schoolgirl Settles with RIAA,Wired News , 10 September 2003, available atlink #67 .samplingsomeone else's music.-The story about Bob Dylan "stealing" from a Japanese author has just +The story about Bob Dylan -Jon Wiederhorn, "Eminem Gets Sued … by a Little Old Lady," +Jon Wiederhorn, Eminem Gets Sued … by a Little Old Lady,mtv.com, 17 September 2003, available atlink #68 .stealingfrom a Japanese author has just finished making the rounds.An insider from Hollywood—who insists he must remain -anonymous—reports "an amazing conversation with these studio +anonymous—reports -Kenji Hall, Associated Press, "Japanese Book May Be Inspiration for -Dylan Songs," Kansascity.com, 9 July 2003, available at +Kenji Hall, Associated Press, Japanese Book May Be Inspiration for +Dylan Songs,Kansascity.com, 9 July 2003, available atlink #69 .an amazing conversation with these studio guys. They've got extraordinary [old] content that they'd love to use but can't because they can't begin to clear the rights. They've got scores of kids who could do amazing things with the content, but it -would take scores of lawyers to clean it first." Congressmen are +would take scores of lawyers to clean it first.Congressmen are talking about deputizing computer viruses to bring down computers thought to violate the law. Universities are threatening expulsion for kids who use a computer to share content. @@ -12959,9 +13021,9 @@ kids who use a computer to share content.Gil, Gilberto Yet on the other side of the Atlantic, the BBC has just announced -that it will build a "Creative Archive," from which British citizens can +that it will build a Creative Archive,from which British citizens can download BBC content, and rip, mix, and burn it.@@ -12970,7 +13032,7 @@ of Brazilian music, has joined with Creative Commons to release content and free licenses in that Latin American country. - "BBC Plans to Open Up Its Archive to the Public," BBC press release, + BBC Plans to Open Up Its Archive to the Public,BBC press release, 24 August 2003, available atlink #70 .@@ -13033,23 +13095,23 @@ that really is the choice, then the warriors should win. -"Creative Commons and Brazil," Creative Commons Weblog, 6 August 2003, + Creative Commons and Brazil,Creative Commons Weblog, 6 August 2003, available atlink #71 .The mistake here is the error of the excluded middle. There are extremes in this debate, but the extremes are not all that there -is. There are those who believe in maximal copyright—"All Rights -Reserved"— and those who reject copyright—"No Rights -Reserved." The "All Rights Reserved" sorts believe that you should ask -permission before you "use" a copyrighted work in any way. The "No -Rights Reserved" sorts believe you should be able to do with content +is. There are those who believe in maximal copyright— All Rights +Reserved— and those who reject copyright—No Rights +Reserved.TheAll Rights Reservedsorts believe that you should ask +permission before youusea copyrighted work in any way. TheNo +Rights Reservedsorts believe you should be able to do with content as you wish, regardless of whether you have permission or not.When the Internet was first born, its initial architecture effectively -tilted in the "no rights reserved" direction. Content could be copied +tilted in the no rights reserveddirection. Content could be copied perfectly and cheaply; rights could not easily be controlled. Thus, regardless of anyone's desire, the effective regime of copyright under the -original design of the Internet was "no rights reserved." Content was -"taken" regardless of the rights. Any rights were effectively +original design of the Internet wasno rights reserved.Content was +takenregardless of the rights. Any rights were effectively unprotected.@@ -13058,18 +13120,18 @@ equal) by copyright owners. That reaction has been the topic of this book. Through legislation, litigation, and changes to the network's design, copyright holders have been able to change the essential character of the environment of the original Internet. If the original -architecture made the effective default "no rights reserved," the -future architecture will make the effective default "all rights -reserved." The architecture and law that surround the Internet's +architecture made the effective default no rights reserved,the +future architecture will make the effective defaultall rights +reserved.The architecture and law that surround the Internet's design will increasingly produce an environment where all use of -content requires permission. The "cut and paste" world that defines -the Internet today will become a "get permission to cut and paste" +content requires permission. Thecut and pasteworld that defines +the Internet today will become aget permission to cut and pasteworld that is a creator's nightmare.What's needed is a way to say something in the middle—neither -"all rights reserved" nor "no rights reserved" but "some rights -reserved"— and thus a way to respect copyrights but enable + all rights reservednorno rights reservedbutsome rights +reserved— and thus a way to respect copyrights but enable creators to free content as they see fit. In other words, we need a way to restore a set of freedoms that we could just take for granted before. @@ -13084,7 +13146,7 @@ privacy. Before the Internet, most of us didn't have to worry much about data about our lives that we broadcast to the world. If you walked into a bookstore and browsed through some of the works of Karl Marx, you didn't need to worry about explaining your browsing habits -to your neighbors or boss. The "privacy" of your browsing habits was +to your neighbors or boss. Theprivacyof your browsing habits was assured.@@ -13103,7 +13165,7 @@ enough to spend the thousands required to track you. But for most of us (again, we can hope), spying doesn't pay. The highly inefficient architecture of real space means we all enjoy a fairly robust amount of privacy. That privacy is guaranteed to us by friction. Not by law -(there is no law protecting "privacy" in public places), and in many +(there is no law protecting @@ -13113,16 +13175,16 @@ Enter the Internet, where the cost of tracking browsing in particular has become quite tiny. If you're a customer at Amazon, then as you browse the pages, Amazon collects the data about what you've looked at. You know this because at the side of the page, there's a list of -"recently viewed" pages. Now, because of the architecture of the Net +privacyin public places), and in many places, not by norms (snooping and gossip are just fun), but instead, by the costs that friction imposes on anyone who would want to spy.recently viewedpages. Now, because of the architecture of the Net and the function of cookies on the Net, it is easier to collect the -data than not. The friction has disappeared, and hence any "privacy" +data than not. The friction has disappeared, and hence anyprivacyprotected by the friction disappears, too.cookies, Internet Amazon, of course, is not the problem. But we might begin to worry about libraries. If you're one of those crazy lefties who thinks that -people should have the "right" to browse in a library without the +people should have the rightto browse in a library without the government knowing which books you look at (I'm one of those lefties, too), then this change in the technology of monitoring might concern you. If it becomes simple to gather and sort who does what in @@ -13130,14 +13192,14 @@ electronic spaces, then the friction-induced privacy of yesterday disappears.-It is this reality that explains the push of many to define "privacy" +It is this reality that explains the push of many to define privacyon the Internet. It is the recognition that technology can remove what friction before gave us that leads many to push for laws to do what friction did.-See, for example, Marc Rotenberg, "Fair Information Practices and the -Architecture of Privacy (What Larry Doesn't Get)," @@ -13380,13 +13442,13 @@ many is that we are not interested only in talking about a public domain or in getting legislators to help build a public domain. Our aim is to build a movement of consumers and producers -of content ("content conducers," as attorney Mia Garlick calls them) +of content (Stanford Technology +See, for example, Marc Rotenberg, Fair Information Practices and the +Architecture of Privacy (What Larry Doesn't Get),Stanford Technology Law Review 1 (2001): par. 6–18, available atlink #72 @@ -13204,7 +13266,7 @@ fundamentally weakened.Therefore, in 1984, Stallman began a project to build a free operating system, so that at least a strain of free software would survive. That -was the birth of the GNU project, into which Linus Torvalds's "Linux" +was the birth of the GNU project, into which Linus Torvalds's @@ -13356,8 +13418,8 @@ precise contours depend upon the choices the creator makes. The creator can choose a license that permits any use, so long as attribution is given. She can choose a license that permits only noncommercial use. She can choose a license that permits any use so -long as the same freedoms are given to other uses ("share and share -alike"). Or any use so long as no derivative use is made. Or any use +long as the same freedoms are given to other uses (Linuxkernel was added to produce the GNU/Linux operating system.GNU/Linux operating system @@ -13346,7 +13408,7 @@ machine-readable tags—constitute a Creative Commons license. A Creative Commons license constitutes a grant of freedom to anyone who accesses the license, and more importantly, an expression of the ideal that the person associated with the license believes in something -different than the "All" or "No" extremes. Content is marked with the +different than the Linux operating system AllorNoextremes. Content is marked with the CC mark, which does not mean that copyright is waived, but that certain freedoms are given.share and share +alike). Or any use so long as no derivative use is made. Or any use at all within developing nations. Or any sampling use, so long as full copies are not made. Or lastly, any educational use.content conducers,as attorney Mia Garlick calls them) who help build the public domain and, by their work, demonstrate the importance of the public domain to other creativity.Garlick, Mia -The aim is not to fight the "All Rights Reserved" sorts. The aim is to +The aim is not to fight the All Rights Reservedsorts. The aim is to complement them. The problems that the law creates for us as a culture are produced by insane and unintended consequences of laws written centuries ago, applied to a technology that only Jefferson could have @@ -13441,7 +13503,7 @@ well. These are examples of using the Commons to better spread proprietary content. I believe that is a wonderful and common use of the Commons. There are others who use Creative Commons licenses for other -reasons. Many who use the "sampling license" do so because anything +reasons. Many who use thesampling licensedo so because anything else would be hypocritical. The sampling license says that others are free, for commercial or noncommercial purposes, to sample content from the licensed work; they are just not free to make full copies of the @@ -13449,7 +13511,7 @@ licensed work available to others. This is consistent with their own art—they, too, sample from others. Because thelegal costs of sampling are so high (Walter Leaphart, manager of the rap group Public Enemy, which was born -sampling the music of others, has stated that he does not "allow" +sampling the music of others, has stated that he does notallowPublic Enemy to sample anymore, because the legal costs are so high-The meaning of an unmarked work would therefore be "use unless someone -complains." If someone does complain, then the obligation would be to +The meaning of an unmarked work would therefore be @@ -13466,12 +13528,12 @@ that others can build upon, so that their form of creativity might grow. Finally, there are many who mark their content with a Creative Commons license just because they want to express to others the importance of balance in this debate. If you just go along with the system as it is, -you are effectively saying you believe in the "All Rights Reserved" +you are effectively saying you believe in the All Rights Reservedmodel. Good for you, but many do not. Many believe that however appropriate that rule is for Hollywood and freaks, it is not an appropriate description of how most creators view the rights associated with their content. The Creative Commons license expresses -this notion of "Some Rights Reserved," and gives many the chance to +this notion ofSome Rights Reserved,and gives many the chance to say it to others.@@ -13540,7 +13602,7 @@ protected. In contrast, under current copyright law, you automatically get a copyright, regardless of whether you comply with any formality. You don't have to register. You don't even have to mark your content. The -default is control, and "formalities" are banished. +default is control, and formalitiesare banished.Why? @@ -13677,8 +13739,8 @@ There would be a complication with derivative works that I have not solved here. In my view, the law of derivatives creates a more complicated system than is justified by the marginal incentive it creates. use unless someone +complains.If someone does complain, then the obligation would be to stop using the work in any new work from then on though no penalty would attach for existing uses. @@ -13745,7 +13807,7 @@ radical.The Economist endorsed a proposal for a fourteen copyright term.@@ -13771,13 +13833,13 @@ work up with legal regulations when it no longer benefits an author. -"A Radical Rethink," Economist , 366:8308 (25 January 2003): 15, +A Radical Rethink,Economist , 366:8308 (25 January 2003): 15, available atlink #74 .Keep it simple: The line between the public domain and protected content must be kept clear. Lawyers like the -fuzziness of "fair use," and the distinction between "ideas" and -"expression." That kind of law gives them lots of work. But our +fuzziness offair use,and the distinction betweenideasand +expression.That kind of law gives them lots of work. But our framers had a simpler idea in mind: protected versus unprotected. The value of short terms is that there is little need to build exceptions into copyright when the term itself is kept short. A clear and active -"lawyer-free zone" makes the complexities of "fair use" and -"idea/expression" less necessary to navigate. +lawyer-free zonemakes the complexities offair useand +idea/expressionless necessary to navigate.@@ -13824,9 +13886,9 @@ the average term was just 32.2 years. We should be aiming for the same. -No doubt the extremists will call these ideas "radical." (After all, I -call them "extremists.") But again, the term I recommended was longer -than the term under Richard Nixon. How "radical" can it be to ask for +No doubt the extremists will call these ideas @@ -13844,13 +13906,13 @@ challenge. It made no sense anymore to grant that much control, given the emergence of that new technology.radical.(After all, I +call themextremists.) But again, the term I recommended was longer +than the term under Richard Nixon. Howradicalcan it be to ask for a more generous copyright law than Richard Nixon presided over?-Our Constitution gives Congress the power to give authors "exclusive -right" to "their writings." Congress has given authors an exclusive -right to "their writings" plus any derivative writings (made by +Our Constitution gives Congress the power to give authors exclusive +righttotheir writings.Congress has given authors an exclusive +right totheir writingsplus any derivative writings (made by others) that are sufficiently close to the author's original work. Thus, if I write a book, and you base a movie on that book, I have the power to deny you the right to release that movie, even -though that movie is not "my writing." +though that movie is notmy writing.Congress granted the beginnings of this right in 1870, when it @@ -13900,7 +13962,7 @@ after the creative work is done. rights be narrowed. Again, there are some cases in which derivative rights are important. Those should be specified. But the law should draw clear lines around regulated and unregulated uses of copyrighted -material. When all "reuse" of creative material was within the control +material. When all reuseof creative material was within the control of businesses, perhaps it made sense to require lawyers to negotiate the lines. It no longer makes sense for lawyers to negotiate the lines. Think about all the creative possibilities that digital @@ -14068,10 +14130,10 @@ is. Content services will compete with content sharing, even if the services charge money for the content they give access to. Already cell-phone services in Japan offer music (for a fee) streamed over cell phones (enhanced with plugs for headphones). The Japanese are -paying for this content even though "free" content is available in the +paying for this content even thoughfreecontent is available in the form of MP3s across the Web.@@ -14079,11 +14141,11 @@ April 2002, available at -See, for example, "Music Media Watch," The J@pan Inc. Newsletter, 3 +See, for example, Music Media Watch,The J@pan Inc. Newsletter, 3 April 2002, available atlink #76 .This point about the future is meant to suggest a perspective on the -present: It is emphatically temporary. The "problem" with file +present: It is emphatically temporary. The problemwith file sharing—to the extent there is a real problem—is a problem that will increasingly disappear as it becomes easier to connect to the Internet. And thus it is an extraordinary mistake for policy -makers today to be "solving" this problem in light of a technology +makers today to besolvingthis problem in light of a technology that will be gone tomorrow. The question should not be how to regulate the Internet to eliminate file sharing (the Net will evolve that problem away). The question instead should be how to assure that @@ -14094,10 +14156,10 @@ this transition between twentieth-century models for doing business and twenty-first-century technologies.-The answer begins with recognizing that there are different "problems" +The answer begins with recognizing that there are different problemshere to solve. Let's start with type D content—uncopyrighted content or copyrighted content that the artist wants shared. The -"problem" with this content is to make sure that the technology that +problemwith this content is to make sure that the technology that would enable this kind of sharing is not rendered illegal. You can think of it this way: Pay phones are used to deliver ransom demands, no doubt. But there are many who need to use pay phones who have @@ -14105,7 +14167,7 @@ nothing to do with ransoms. It would be wrong to ban pay phones in order to eliminate kidnapping.-Type C content raises a different "problem." This is content that was, +Type C content raises a different problem.This is content that was, at one time, published and is no longer available. It may be unavailable because the artist is no longer valuable enough for the record label he signed with to carry his work. Or it may be @@ -14120,14 +14182,14 @@ stores. But libraries and used book stores don't pay the copyright owner when someone reads or buys an out-of-print book. That makes total sense, of course, since any other system would be so burdensome as to eliminate the possibility of used book stores' existing. But -from the author's perspective, this "sharing" of his content without +from the author's perspective, thissharingof his content without his being compensated is less than ideal.The model of used book stores suggests that the law could simply deem out-of-print music fair game. If the publisher does not make copies of the music available for sale, then commercial and noncommercial -providers would be free, under this rule, to "share" that content, +providers would be free, under this rule, to sharethat content, even though the sharing involved making a copy. The copy here would be incidental to the trade; in a context where commercial publishing has ended, trading music should be as free as trading books. @@ -14199,22 +14261,22 @@ Entertainment (forthcoming) (Stanford: Stanford University Press,link #78 . Professor Netanel has proposed a related idea that would exempt noncommercial sharing from the reach of copyright and would establish compensation -to artists to balance any loss. See Neil Weinstock Netanel, "Impose a -Noncommercial Use Levy to Allow Free P2P File Sharing," available at -link #79 . For other proposals, see Lawrence Lessig, "Who's Holding Back -Broadband?"Washington Post , 8 January 2002, A17; Philip S. Corwin on +to artists to balance any loss. See Neil Weinstock Netanel,Impose a +Noncommercial Use Levy to Allow Free P2P File Sharing,available at +link #79 . For other proposals, see Lawrence Lessig,Who's Holding Back +Broadband?Washington Post , 8 January 2002, A17; Philip S. Corwin on behalf of Sharman Networks, A Letter to Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 26 February 2002, available atlink #80 ; Serguei Osokine,A Quick Case for Intellectual Property Use Fee (IPUF) , 3 March 2002, available atlink #81 ; Jefferson Graham, -"Kazaa, Verizon Propose to Pay Artists Directly,"USA Today , 13 May +Kazaa, Verizon Propose to Pay Artists Directly,USA Today , 13 May 2002, available at -link #82 ; Steven M. Cherry, "Getting Copyright Right," +link #82 ; Steven M. Cherry,Getting Copyright Right,IEEE Spectrum Online, 1 July 2002, available atlink #83 ; Declan -McCullagh, "Verizon's Copyright Campaign," CNET News.com, 27 August +McCullagh,Verizon's Copyright Campaign,CNET News.com, 27 August 2002, available atlink #84 . Fisher's proposal is very similar to Richard Stallman's proposal for @@ -14256,7 +14318,7 @@ controlling access.Fisher would balk at the idea of allowing the system to lapse. His aim is not just to ensure that artists are paid, but also to ensure that -the system supports the widest range of "semiotic democracy" +the system supports the widest range of semiotic democracypossible. But the aims of semiotic democracy would be satisfied if the other changes I described were accomplished—in particular, the limits on derivative @@ -14269,11 +14331,11 @@ allowed to do with the content itself.Real Networks No doubt it would be difficult to calculate the proper measure of -"harm" to an industry. But the difficulty of making that calculation + harmto an industry. But the difficulty of making that calculation would be outweighed by the benefit of facilitating innovation. This background system to compensate would also not need to interfere with innovative proposals such as Apple's MusicStore. As experts predicted -when Apple launched the MusicStore, it could beat "free" by being +when Apple launched the MusicStore, it could beatfreeby being easier than free is. This has proven correct: Apple has sold millions of songs at even the very high price of 99 cents a song. (At 99 cents, the cost is the equivalent of a per-song CD price, though the labels @@ -14283,16 +14345,16 @@ there will be a great deal of competition to offer and sell music on-line.-This competition has already occurred against the background of "free" +This competition has already occurred against the background of freemusic from p2p systems. As the sellers of cable television have known for thirty years, and the sellers of bottled water for much more than -that, there is nothing impossible at all about "competing with free." +that, there is nothing impossible at all aboutcompeting with free.Indeed, if anything, the competition spurs the competitors to offer new and better products. This is precisely what the competitive market was to be about. Thus in Singapore, though piracy is rampant, movie -theaters are often luxurious—with "first class" seats, and meals +theaters are often luxurious—withfirst classseats, and meals served while you watch a movie—as they struggle and succeed in -finding ways to compete with "free." +finding ways to compete withfree.This regime of competition, with a backstop to assure that artists @@ -14337,9 +14399,9 @@ sharing, to the extent actual harm is demonstrated. -But what if "piracy" doesn't disappear? What if there is a competitive +But what if piracydoesn't disappear? What if there is a competitive market providing content at a low cost, but a significant number of -consumers continue to "take" content for nothing? Should the law do +consumers continue totakecontent for nothing? Should the law do something then?@@ -14385,7 +14447,7 @@ strong view queers the law. The evidence of this bending is compelling. I'm attacked as a -"radical" by many within the profession, yet the positions that I am + radicalby many within the profession, yet the positions that I am advocating are precisely the positions of some of the most moderate and significant figures in the history of this branch of the law. Many, for example, thought crazy the challenge that we brought to @@ -14393,7 +14455,7 @@ the Copyright Term Extension Act. Yet just thirty years ago, the dominant scholar and practitioner in the field of copyright, Melville Nimmer, thought it obvious.@@ -14418,7 +14480,7 @@ the data, and he has since revised his view again. Compare Stan J. Liebowitz, -Lawrence Lessig, "Copyright's First Amendment" (Melville B. Nimmer +Lawrence Lessig, Copyright's First Amendment(Melville B. Nimmer Memorial Lecture),UCLA Law Review 48 (2001): 1057, 1069–70.Rethinking the Network Economy: The True Forces That Drive the Digital Marketplace (New York: Amacom, 2002), (reviewing his original view but expressing skepticism) with Stan J. Liebowitz, -"Will MP3s Annihilate the Record Industry?" working paper, June 2003, +Will MP3s Annihilate the Record Industry?working paper, June 2003, available atlink #86 . Liebowitz's careful analysis is extremely valuable in estimating the @@ -14479,11 +14541,11 @@ regulate culture only where that regulation does good. Yet lawyers rarely test their power, or the power they promote, against this -simple pragmatic question: "Will it do good?" When challenged about -the expanding reach of the law, the lawyer answers, "Why not?" +simple pragmatic question:Will it do good?When challenged about +the expanding reach of the law, the lawyer answers,Why not?-We should ask, "Why?" Show me why your regulation of culture is +We should ask, @@ -14556,7 +14618,7 @@ K. L. Mann, Mark Manning, Nora McCauley, Jeffrey McHugh, Evan McMullen, Fred Norton, John Pormann, Pedro A. D. Rezende, Shabbir Safdar, Saul Schleimer, Clay Shirky, Adam Shostack, Kragen Sitaker, Chris Smith, Bruce Steinberg, Andrzej Jan Taramina, Sean Walsh, Matt -Wasserman, Miljenko Williams, "Wink," Roger Wood, "Ximmbo da Jazz," +Wasserman, Miljenko Williams,Why?Show me why your regulation of culture is needed. Show me how it does good. And until you can show me both, keep your lawyers away.Wink,Roger Wood,Ximmbo da Jazz,and Richard Yanco. (I apologize if I have missed anyone; with computers come glitches, and a crash of my e-mail system meant I lost a bunch of great replies.)