Copywrong

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Thu, 05 Jul 2001 12:00:00 GMT
Kevin Tuma - America's REAL Flag of Freedom - and how!

I've switched the ad in the left-hand column from a link to For a Hero - Peter McWilliams 1950-2000 to a link to Hope, the new book by Aaron Zelman and L. Neil Smith. It's been over a year since Peter's murder. I'm switching this small part of my life from looking back at the injustices of the past to looking forward with hope to the glory of the future. God bless you Peter. Your book, Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do was my introduction to libertarian thought, and I thank you for it.

Declan McCullagh at Wired - Lawyers: Keep Barney Pure - The law firm of Gibney, Anthony and Flaherty appears to have nothing better to do with their time than send nastygrams to folks who take the name of Barney® the dinosaur in vain. Fortunately, the folks at Cybercheeze sent a suitable reply, sense of humor well preserved. In the old days we had ambulance chasers (still do). Now we have patent and trademark chasers. The bottom feeders of the lawyering underworld. [wired]

However, Cybercheeze will refrain from taking immediate legal action upon condition that you provide written assurances by June 27, 2001, that you have ceased and desisted from sex and procreation, as well as reproducing, distributing, performing by means of digital audio transmission, or displaying your genitals. Your written assurances must also state that you have removed all your clothing by signifying that you are typing one handed. We await an immediate response from you or your counsel.

Ronna Abramson at The Standard - Aimster Gets Full Napster Treatment - meanwhile, another bevy of lawyers is suing Aimster. The RIAA folks want to somehow prevent Aimster's users from trading music. AOL/Time Warner claims that the "Aim" in Aimster infringes on their Aol Instant Messenger trademark. Aimster claims that it is the nickname of Aimee, taking aim in the image on the right. Aimster is going to be quite a bit harder than Napster to shut down, since they don't have any centralized servers. [newsforge]

Siva Vaidhyanathan at MSNBC - Copyrights and copywrongs: Why Thomas Jefferson would love Napster - A good discussion of copyright. The U.S. constitution gives this limited monopoly to authors to encourage their creativity. The intention was NOT, however, for copyright to be a property right. It protects a particular expression of an idea for a limited time. It does not protect the idea itself, and the expression becomes part of the public domain when the copyright expires. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) turns this idea on its head. Bad DMCA! Bad! [cafe]

American copyright grew to embody four democratic safeguards:
  • A guarantee that all works would enter the public domain once the copyright term expired.
  • A collection of purposes that consumers could consider "fair use," such as limited copying for education or research.
  • The principle that after the "first sale" of a copyrighted item, the buyer could do whatever he or she wants with the item, save distribute unauthorized copies for profit.
  • The concept that copyright protects specific expression of ideas, but not the ideas themselves.
OUT OF BALANCE
Copyright, when well balanced, encourages the production and distribution of the raw material of democracy. But after more than 200 years of legal evolution and technological revolution, American copyright no longer offers strong democratic safeguards. It is out of balance. And our founders — especially Thomas Jefferson — would not be pleased.

...

Fearing, justifiably, that copyright might eventually expand to encompass idea protection, not just expression protection, Jefferson wrote in 1813, "If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of everyone, and the receiver cannot dispose himself of it."

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