autocratic for the people.

Free Culture.

Lessig's Free Culture argues powerfully that our lawmakers' susceptibility to powerful lobbying has ended the United States' tradition of passing copyrighted works into the public domain, and that perpetual extensions of the copyright term will ultimately allow big media to "assure that all [culture] there is is what is theirs." It's a persuasively argued book, filled with rich, apt metaphors and fascinating discussions of the origination and intended purpose of copyright (as it originally pertained: to book publishing, for commercial purposes, in a highly competitive market).

An excerpt:

... Copyright's duration has increased dramatically – tripled in the past thirty years. And copyright's scope has increased as well – from regulating only publishers to now regulating just about everyone. And copyright's reach has changed, as every action [on the Internet] becomes a copy and is hence presumptively regulated. And as technologists find better ways to control the use of content, and as copyright is increasingly enforced through technology, copyright's force changes, too. Misuse is easier to find and easier to control. This regulation of the creative process, which began as a tiny regulation governing a tiny part of the market for creative work, has become the single most important regulator of creativity there is. It is a massive expansion in the scope of the government's control over innovation and creativity; it would be totally unrecognizable to those who gave birth to copyright's control.

The book also regularly addresses the issue of online music sharing, which has raged since Napster in 1999 and is arguably responsible for the current mutated state of fair use:

... 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 (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.

But it is not quite stealing from Tower. After all, when I take a CD from Tower Records, Tower has one less CD to sell. And when I take a CD from Tower Records, I get a bit of plastic and a cover, and something to show on my shelves. (And, while we're at it, we could also note that when I take a CD from Tower Records, the maximum fine that might be imposed on me, under California law, at least, is $1,000. According to the RIAA, by contrast, if I download a ten-song CD, I'm liable for $1,500,000 in damages.)

The point is not that it is as neither side describes. The point is that it is both – both as the RIAA describes it and as Kazaa describes it. It is a chimera. And rather than simply denying what the other side asserts, we need to begin to think about how we should respond to this chimera. What rules should govern it?

In the end, Lessig describes the rules that should govern it. He also describes how he attempted to get the (single) rule introduced to Congress, but had it crushed by Jack Valenti and media lobbies despite its explicit support for their business models. Lessig also beautifully recounts a clearly painful experience he had in 2002 when arguing at the Supreme Court that Congress' regular extensions of copyright's term is unconstitutional. (And it is very clear, if you look at the Constitution, that it is.) In the end, this is a hugely important book, and anyone who feels that learning from history's mistakes, opposing subjugation of the First Amendment, or reclaiming what democracy used to be needs to read it.

Which makes it all the more fortunate that, if you don't want to purchase a copy, you can just download it for free instead. For Lessig is also the author of the Creative Commons license.

posted by avixe @ 9:49 PM