{"id":202,"date":"2007-03-13T15:04:51","date_gmt":"2007-03-13T13:04:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.veni.com\/?p=202"},"modified":"2007-03-13T15:04:51","modified_gmt":"2007-03-13T13:04:51","slug":"more-on-copyright","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.veni.com\/?p=202","title":{"rendered":"More on Copyright"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just saw Larry Lessig’s blog<\/a> about how bad it is<\/a> to copy copyright material (the first link is to the category, the second to the article itself).<\/p>\n

Worth reading.<\/p>\n

Here are two of the arguments, edited (bold<\/strong> from me).<\/p>\n

  • Fallacy one: \u201cWhen you make a copy of a copyrighted work, you are in essence stealing it, and even when I download music and movies, I never kid myself that what I am doing is legal.\u201d<\/li>\n

    [ ] even if making \u201ca copy of a copyrighted work\u201d is illegal, it is not \u201cin essence stealing it.\u201d See the Supreme Court\u2019s rejection of this false analogy in footnote 33 of Sony v. Universal.<\/p>\n

    [ ] and most important, not every \u201ccopy\u201d violates copyright law. In particular, if a copy is \u201cfair use,\u201d then copyright law has not been violated<\/strong>. The question in this case is thus, as always, is the copying for purposes of making snippet access available \u201cfair use.\u201d As much as you know that it is wrong to download music without the permission of the copyright owner, I hope you also know that it is right to make copies \u2014 even without the permission of the copyright owner \u2014 when such copies are fair use.<\/p>\n

  • Fallacy two: \u201cWhile there are many authors who care more about getting their books out there than making money, the vast majority is trying to earn a living. Those authors whose books are out of print, but still in copyright, would love an opportunity to make some money off their older books, but Google’s plan involves copying them without permission.\u201d<\/li>\n

    True, most authors would prefer to make more money from their works than they did before. True, Google plans on copying them (for purposes of making snippet access available) without permission. But the implication \u2014 that Google\u2019s copying will reduce author\u2019s opportunity to make money \u2014 is false. Out of print books are \u2014 by definition \u2014 books the authors are not making money on. Google\u2019s Book Search will refer people who discover the out of print book to book sellers. If demand for a currently out of print book grows, then it is more likely than before that the book will go back into print, meaning again, the author can make money. So contrary to the \u201cif Google copies, authors lose\u201d fallacy, if Google enables access, at least some authors will get something they don\u2019t have right now \u2014 their out of print book back in print.<\/p>\n

  • Fallacy three: \u201cEven if all the authors want their books in Google, I’ve always felt that to respect me, you have to show respect, and that means asking me if what you are doing is okay. Don?\u20ac\u2122t tell these authors what’s best for them, that shows no respect at all.\u201d<\/li>\n

    First, both sides in this debate are effectively \u201ctell[ing] these authors what\u2019s best for them.\u201d Microsoft and the Publishers are telling the authors that it is best for them that the law ban companies like Google from securing access to snippets of their works. They want a rule that says \u201cask first\u201d not for permission to distribute copies of their books, but for permission to enable access through a 21st century card catalog<\/strong>. When in the history of man did the law require permission from an author (or publisher) for a work to be included in a card catalog?<\/p>\n

    Second, the point ignores the central point in this debate: Given the insanely inefficient system of copyright that the government has created, there\u2019s no way to identify the current owners of these copyrights (for works out of print). So how, again, are these people to be \u201casked\u201d?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Just saw Larry Lessig’s blog about how bad it is to copy copyright material (the first link is to the category, the second to the article itself). Worth reading. Here are two of the arguments, edited (bold from me). Fallacy … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5,12,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-copyright","category-in-english","category-usa"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.veni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.veni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.veni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.veni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.veni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.veni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.veni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.veni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.veni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}