Re: Authors' rights (Was- R

From: DAVID POST <postd[_at_]erols.com>
Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 08:57:36 -0400 (EDT)

John Lederer johnl[_at_]ibm.net wrote:

>>
>> It may be irrelevant, but the core of those fighting for greater 
>> protection seems less composed of the authors ("creators") than 
>> distributors.

Mike Holderness then wrote:
>
> The reason you have this impression is simply because the
> distributors (publishers, producers) are more able to throw money
> at the issue. [snip]

  That's not, imho, the *only* reason there is often a striking difference of opinion between authors and distributors in regard to copyright protection. Distributors' compensation is, generally, monetary, requiring control over the number of copies of a work in circulation. Authors sometimes - *sometimes* - obtain different forms of compensation from their works, namely "reputational" benefits, in which case they desire the widestpossible circulation. The academic publishing market is probably the best example of this phenomenon. Commercial advertising on television is probably another: the providers of ad content would like nothing more than to have users copy their work and distribute it to the world; the "distributors" (network broadcasters) have other things in mind.

David

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David G. Post *
Georgetown University Law Center*

Postd[_at_]erols.com OR              *
david.post[_at_]counsel.com		*
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Received on Tue Apr 16 1996 - 12:56:37 GMT