copyright under stress

My own view of copyright is not that it is per se antiquated or wrong, but that the movement of it in the last 30 years has been the opposite of what technological change should have led to. For instance, terms should have become shorter, copyright should have covered less material, and notice of what is copyrighted and whom to contact for permission more obvious.

I see a tactical dilemma, however.

One tactic would be to point out to the community what is wrong with copyright and, through various means, try to put pressure on Congress to reform. This daunts, because copyright presents one of democracy's weaknesses -- a strong private interest group against a diffuse public interest.

The other is the Gotterdammerung approach. Copyright is becoming increasingly dysfunctional and the conflict with the First Amendment more and more stark. Reason appears to have less importance and the dialogue moves towards polemics. The reactions to copyright problems have generally been to propose increasingly draconian copyright measures supported by emotion laden terms like "steal", "piracy", and handsome PAC contributions. I suspect that such an approach will eventually lead to a radical restructuring of copyright by the courts, or to it being hacked apart by the mob (at least the Geek part of the mob).

So which is the better tactical approach? To fight, or to encourage outrageous excess, confident that after the Revolution the Hollywood moguls will be sweeping the streets?

Regards,
John Lederer
<johnl[_at_]ibm.net> Received on Fri May 26 2000 - 15:02:24 GMT