[FC-discuss] Fwd: [fc-d] nytimes op-ed argues for extension o fcopyright

[Crosbie Fitch]

How quickly people forget that it is the public who owns published works,
the copyright owner merely possesses some commercially advantageous
privileges to exploit for a limited time - as consideration for their act of
publication.
 
I don't know whether I have a rebuttal so much as a "If they truly believe
their walled gardens need machine gun towers, well, let them have what they
want, but let's make gardens public by default".
 
So, I'm suggesting that a solution is to let the IP maximalists have their
way, and enable the creation of laws that recognise the ability for IP to
remain owned in all instances and derivatives by the copyright owner - in
perpetuity. However, this is a solution only if publication creates free
culture by default, and ownership requires special registration.
 
It's a 'solution', because the public can then decide whether they prefer
'free culture' and liberty or 'proporietary culture' and draconian penalties
against infringement. 
 
We're already discovering this to some extent with copyleft, but there are
still the die hards who write off the free culture movement as a bunch of
loonies giving their work away. A far greater problem in their view is the
erosion of respect for private ownership of published IP. Their thinking
supposes that if copyright was reinforced, then there'd be more respect for
it...
 
At the moment people only see copyrighted works - because all works are
automatically copyrighted. This can be undone with copyleft licenses, but it
would be interesting to see publication being copyleft by default, with
copyright the thing that takes deliberation.
 
I came up with a rough draft along these lines here:
http://www.digitalproductions.co.uk/index.php?id=43
<http://www.digitalproductions.co.uk/index.php?id=43> 
 
 


  _____  

From: Elizabeth Stark [mailto:emstark at gmail.com] 
Sent: Sunday, 20 May 2007 3:22am
To: Discussion of Free Culture in general and this organization inparticular
Cc: Lawrence Lessig
Subject: [FC-discuss] Fwd: [fc-d] nytimes op-ed argues for extension
ofcopyright


Let the rebuttals begin... (is this not yet online?)



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jeffrey Hoffman Yip <jeff.yip at gmail.com  <mailto:jeff.yip at gmail.com> >
Date: May 19, 2007 10:05 PM
Subject: [fc-d] nytimes op-ed argues for extension of copyright
To: freeculture-discuss at hcs.harvard.edu
<mailto:freeculture-discuss at hcs.harvard.edu> 

please see attached PDF.  break my legs if greg price doesn't have
something good to say about this one.


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