Re: copyright under stress

On Fri, Jun 16, 2000, Marty Hayes <9ball[_at_]hostsite.net> wrote:
>
> [...]
> While the scarcity premise in a previously offered post is perhaps
> part of the equation in copyright, I don't agree that it's the core
> factor in the "intent of copyright" discussion. I can borrow a
> book from a friend without infringing copyright. In fact, if I
> wished, I could purchase "Book A" or "Movie Video B" and loan it to
> one person at a time until every member of my 45,000-person town had
> seen it/read it. As long as none of them make a copy, no one has
> infringed. In this scenario, they've all had access to it. There's
> no difference between this example and posting something on the net,
> save for increased scope of access.

I think there is a great deal of difference from a copyright owner's standpoint. The tangible nature of the original copy limits the scope of borrowing as a practical matter. Yes, in theory you can lend your copy of a book to 45,000 people; but practically speaking, you can't and you don't. I venture to say that a typical hard copy is lent to only a few people. Even library or rental copies are lent to only a few hundred people.

But when you post something to the net, you have made a reproduction of it; you now have both the original copy and the electronic copy, which can be read by two people at the same time. In addition, you've greatly increased the scope of borrowing as a practical matter. On the net, it is a simple matter to lend your copy to 45,000 people; and they can all read it at the same time instead of at different times. Furthermore, each of those people is not simply borrowing the original; they are receiving electronic copies. It is incredibly easy for them to retain that electronic copy instead of simply reading the work once; and to make additional copies and to "lend" [reproduce and transmit] those copies. So, one electronic copy has the potential of displacing many more sales. The logical extreme is that only one copy of a work is sold, and everyone else in the world borrows it.

Those of you who read my posts regularly know that I am a public domain advocate. But even public domain advocates should try to realize that many copyright owners are genuinely and justifiably afraid of a world in which copies are so easily made. We need to come up with good business models for the net that will allow authors and artists to be compensated in a reasonable way; to retain the benefits of copyright in subsidizing creativity, while placing reasonable limits on copyright to serve the public interest. Until that happens, copyright owners will continue to try to protect themselves the only way they know how: by restricting access to electronic copies.

Tyler T. Ochoa
Associate Professor
Whittier Law School
<tochoa[_at_]law.whittier.edu> Received on Tue Jun 20 2000 - 18:39:24 GMT