articles, books against copyright

One of the sharpest challenges to copyright I've seen in recent years has come from Robin Cover. I refer to this at the beginning of an article I published in Scholarly Publishing, vol 24, no. l (Spring 1992), pp. 25-26. (The "government" challenges I talk about first are the 1986 OTA report, which someone else has cited already, and the anti-copyright views of Librarian of Congress James Billington--perhaps somewhat softened more recently.)

"Others, outside government, are also challenging the copyright system. One of the more articulate and radical of them in the scholarly community is Robin Cover, who in a three-part manifesto issued via the online Humanist Discussion Group in May 1991 asked scholars whether they 'wished to continue their oppressive academic existence as powerless slaves within an economic and legal system which rewards extortion and marketeering of their intellectual property' and called for a 'bloody revolution' (metaphorically, I hope!) against publishers (whileadmitting, however, that "not all are equally guilty'). Cover's proposal is to replace copyright with something akin to the shareware concept advocated by the Free Software Foundation as a more equitable and publicly beneficial system for electronic publishing."

Since Cover's manifesto appeared online, I don't know where you can find it anywhere in print easily. I downloaded it and saved it in printed form somewhere (thus, no doubt, infringing his copyright--but then, given his philosophy, he shouldn't care!), but don't know where in my own files to look. A quick check didn't turn it up. Maybe someone else on this list knows where Cover is currently located and can give us an address? The last I heard he was at some college in Texas.

Sandy Thatcher, Director, Penn State Press <sgt3[_at_]psuvm.psu.edu>

P.S. Thanks to those who provided the cite for Stephen Breyer's article, which I've been trying to find ever since his nomination to the Supreme Court was announced. Received on Mon Dec 05 1994 - 23:29:04 GMT