QotW3: Sharing, Copyright and Creative Culture
The legal world is aware that digital information technology poses problems for copyright: a fundamental conflict between publishers of copyrighted works and the users of these works.
Copyright is a specialized form of property law that recognizes that works of original expression belong to the person who created them. Today that doesn't seem very remarkable; we hardly give it a thought.(Peter Givler,2003)
Copyright holders had certain exclusive rights over their material, but those rights were tempered by access rights held by the public.(Peter Givler,2003). The three most important public rights were the public domain, fair use, and first sale.
Copyright has always been just a temporary monopoly, and by Constitutional edict it can only last for a "limited time".(Howard Besser,2001). When a copyright expires, the work enters the public domain. Anyone can draw on material in the public domain for any purpose whatsoever. Unlike material under copyright, no one can charge users for using the public domain or prevent them from using public domain.
Fair Use allows students to photocopy copyrighted articles for personal use, teachers to read excerpts from copyrighted works in class, reviewers to quote from copyrighted works in their published reviews, and satirists to incorporate portions of copyrighted works into their satires.
According to first sale, anyone who purchases a work can then do what they want with that copy, even if the rightsholder opposes that use.(Howard Besser,2001). First sale allows the purchaser of a work to resell it, lend it, share it, or destroy it without ever consulting the rightsholder. Among other social benefits, the first sale doctrine has permitted libraries, used bookstores, and used record stores to operate without having to consult with a rightsholder each time they lend or sell a work.
The content industry fears that fair use and first sale in the digital age will cause them to lose significant control over their copyrighted content, threatening their profits.(Richard Stallman,2006). Because a digital work is so easy to copy, many rightsholders fear that fair use will provide a loophole for individuals who wish to redistribute a work to others. They also fear that first sale will permit their first buyer to redistribute a work for free, ruining the rightsholderÃs market and destroying authorship incentives. These fears have been the rationale stated by the content industry in their attempts to press for legislation which would virtually eliminate fair use and first sale in the digital world.
United States copyright law considers copyright a bargain between the public and content creators. The public trades certain freedoms in exchange for more published works to enjoy. Copyright involves giving up specific freedoms and retaining others. This means that there are many alternative bargains that the public could offer to publishers. So which bargain is the best one for the public? Which freedoms are worth while for the public to trade, and for what length of time? The answers depend on two things: how much additional publication the public will get for trading a given freedom, and how much the public benefits from keeping that freedom.(Richard Stallman,2006)
References
Besser, Howard. (2001, March 19). Intellectual Property: The attack on public space in cyberspace. Retrieved February 2, 2007, from
http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/~howard/Papers/pw-public-spaces.html
Givler, Peter. (2003, May 9). Copyright: It’s for the public good. Retrieved February 2, 2007, from
http://aaupnet.org/aboutup/copyright.htmlStallman, Richard. (2006, April 6). Reevaluating Copyright: The public must prevail. Retrieved February 2, 2007, from
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/reevaluating-copyright.html
The legal world is aware that digital information technology poses problems for copyright: a fundamental conflict between publishers of copyrighted works and the users of these works.
Copyright is a specialized form of property law that recognizes that works of original expression belong to the person who created them. Today that doesn't seem very remarkable; we hardly give it a thought.(Peter Givler,2003)
Copyright holders had certain exclusive rights over their material, but those rights were tempered by access rights held by the public.(Peter Givler,2003). The three most important public rights were the public domain, fair use, and first sale.
Copyright has always been just a temporary monopoly, and by Constitutional edict it can only last for a "limited time".(Howard Besser,2001). When a copyright expires, the work enters the public domain. Anyone can draw on material in the public domain for any purpose whatsoever. Unlike material under copyright, no one can charge users for using the public domain or prevent them from using public domain.
Fair Use allows students to photocopy copyrighted articles for personal use, teachers to read excerpts from copyrighted works in class, reviewers to quote from copyrighted works in their published reviews, and satirists to incorporate portions of copyrighted works into their satires.
According to first sale, anyone who purchases a work can then do what they want with that copy, even if the rightsholder opposes that use.(Howard Besser,2001). First sale allows the purchaser of a work to resell it, lend it, share it, or destroy it without ever consulting the rightsholder. Among other social benefits, the first sale doctrine has permitted libraries, used bookstores, and used record stores to operate without having to consult with a rightsholder each time they lend or sell a work.
The content industry fears that fair use and first sale in the digital age will cause them to lose significant control over their copyrighted content, threatening their profits.(Richard Stallman,2006). Because a digital work is so easy to copy, many rightsholders fear that fair use will provide a loophole for individuals who wish to redistribute a work to others. They also fear that first sale will permit their first buyer to redistribute a work for free, ruining the rightsholderÃs market and destroying authorship incentives. These fears have been the rationale stated by the content industry in their attempts to press for legislation which would virtually eliminate fair use and first sale in the digital world.
United States copyright law considers copyright a bargain between the public and content creators. The public trades certain freedoms in exchange for more published works to enjoy. Copyright involves giving up specific freedoms and retaining others. This means that there are many alternative bargains that the public could offer to publishers. So which bargain is the best one for the public? Which freedoms are worth while for the public to trade, and for what length of time? The answers depend on two things: how much additional publication the public will get for trading a given freedom, and how much the public benefits from keeping that freedom.(Richard Stallman,2006)
References
Besser, Howard. (2001, March 19). Intellectual Property: The attack on public space in cyberspace. Retrieved February 2, 2007, from
http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/~howard/Papers/pw-public-spaces.html
Givler, Peter. (2003, May 9). Copyright: It’s for the public good. Retrieved February 2, 2007, from
http://aaupnet.org/aboutup/copyright.htmlStallman, Richard. (2006, April 6). Reevaluating Copyright: The public must prevail. Retrieved February 2, 2007, from
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/reevaluating-copyright.html
posted by Ainil @ 2:10 PM
1 Comments:
At 11:45 PM,
Kevin said…
Ainil: You've summerized the copyright act, but didn't give elaborate solutions to accomodate both content creators and the public good. That was the goal of this assignment which most students worked on. You could have gone deeper into the pros and cons of fair use and first sale.
Grade 2/3. Read carefully for the next assignment. If you're unsure, ask.
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