Re: Copyright & The New World Economic Order

It seems to me that the concept that copyright laws do not infringe on the First Amendment is starting to get pretty tattered:

(1) I find it difficult to apply the "idea" 'expression" dichotomy to
the Scientology cases, where it seems to me that Copyright was actively used to prevent discussion of ideas. Indeed, any time the expressions of an author are used to discuss the author the idea/expression concept seems very tenuous to me.

(2) Fair use has become so uncertain a concept that it leaves one in
perpetual doubt whether one is covered by its mantle or not. This doesn't work in the area of free speech.

(3) The loss of a requirement for a notice of copyright made a major
transformation in the law from "all is permitted that is not forbidden" to "all is forbidden unless permitted". The result of course is widespread disobediance -- intentional, inadvertent, by necessity, or by commonsense -- of the law.

(4) The extension of terms to increasingly long periods in the midst
of technological,economic, and social changes that argue for shorter periods merely increases the tension.

Copyright enforcement has already started to become a matter of bluster and threat and selective enforcement. Few public agencies are willing to take the political heat of enforcing the law, so its enforcement increasingly becomes a matter for private associations formed by those who benefit from the law.

I think the system will eventually collapse. The chief reason, of course, is that it no longer accomplishes what it was designed to do. It doesn't promote the dissemination of knowledge . It retards it, and does so for the benefit of a very few.

Regards,
John Lederer
Oregon, Wisconsin
<johnl[_at_]ibm.net> Received on Thu Jul 29 1999 - 22:51:30 GMT