Re: A Radical Thesis

> John,
>
> I think you're absolutely right that radical thinking on 'copyright'
> is needed in the electronic age where copying is extremely cheap,
> easy, and private.
>
> I also agree with you that the two needs to keep paramount are those
> of public access and compensation for the creators. In the new world
> there actually seems little need for the middle-folk of publishers
> since the manufacturing end of publishing is now something your child
> can do at home (although there is an increased need for editors to
> screen out the proliferation of junk).
>
> Martha Luehrmann
> Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
> MRLuehrmann[_at_]LBL.gov
>
> --------------------------------------
> On 4/12/96, John Lederer <johnl[_at_]ibm.net> wrote:
>>
>> I suspect that the increasing hoopla about copyright will
>> increase.
>>
>> I think the core problem is that copyright is obsolete for
>> the new media.
>>
>> Some new mechanism may need to replace it.

     The existence (and limitations) of the printing press were ingrained and unspoken assumptions of the copyright law. The need to set type and put type to paper provided a natural checkpoint  on which control of expression could be exerted.

     In many ways we now are more like the earlier oral world in which communication between the author and audience was direct and unmediated by the press.

     If we forget about counting the number of copies and instead look for ways in which the author (and his assignees, since editors and publishers do add value to the process) can be compensated in some way roughly proportionate to the reception of the work and in which artistic integrity can be preserved, then the constitutional mandate can be met without control over copying as such.

     The modem tax of urban myth to be distributed proportionately to a count of the number of times a file is accessed would be one way (much like the tax on recording media). Some kinds of subscription publishing would be another. Several other methods are just as obvious.

     We should be looking for a way to protect authors' and artists' rights when cyberspace is functioning effectively; not acting as luddites trying to protect the old-fashioned franchises of the buggy manufacturers.

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Buford C. Terrell                       1303 San Jacinto Street
Professor of Law                              Houston, TX 77002
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