Trends, opportunities and threats in the digital copyright and online collaboration realm

Version 2.0, May 2009 by Heather Ford

OR How copyright is colliding with the Internet

(1) Copyright: then and now

1710, England ‘The Statute of Anne: An Act for the Encouragement of Learning’

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scope

duration

public domain

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duration

public domain

(2) Along came the internet

Matt Britt CC BY http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Internet_map_1024.jpg

1983

‘dumb networks smart devices’

the ‘World Wide Web’Tim Berners Lee

1989

A Revolution.

Set a collision course and a challenge that four influential people would take up to attempt to redefine how information and knowledge should be owned and controlled on the new platform.

(3) Enter the revolutionaries

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Richard_Matthew_Stallman.jpeg GFDL

‘The GNU Manifesto’Richard Stallman

1985

1. The Dreamer

Rights to collaborate and improve knowledge are valid when it comes to digital networks.

Pic by Joi Ito CC BY www.flickr.com/photos/joi/836262884/

‘A Declaration of the Independence of

Cyberspace’John Perry Barlow

1996

2. The philosopher

Copyright is a blunt tool to regulate information being shared across networks.

Pic by ‘Notwist’ CC BY http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lessig_portrait.jpg

3. The activist

Lawrence LessigCreative Commons

2003

New copyright rules need to accommodate the art of remix rather than stifling creativity.

4. The pragmatist

Tim O’Reilly‘Web 2.0’

2001

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tim_O%27Reilly2.jpg CC BY

‘Intellectual property protection limits re-use and prevents experimentation. Therefore: when benefits come from collective adoption, not private restriction, make sure that barriers to adoption are low.’

(4) And in the opposite corner

5. The lobbyist

Roland Godefroy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:JackValenti19.JPG

Jack ValentiDigital Millennium

Copyright Act1998

against for

Pirate Bay

against for

Free softwarePirate Bay

against for

Free softwarePirate Bay

C r e a t i v e C o m m o n s

against for

Free softwarePirate Bay

C r e a t i v e C o m m o n sA2K and A2Medicines

against for

Free softwarePirate Bay

C r e a t i v e C o m m o n sA2K and A2Medicines

Indigenous Knowledge

against for

Free softwarePirate Bay

C r e a t i v e C o m m o n sA2K and A2Medicines

Indigenous Knowledge

RIAA

against for

Free softwarePirate Bay

C r e a t i v e C o m m o n sA2K and A2Medicines

Indigenous Knowledge

RIAA

against for

Drug companies

Free softwarePirate Bay

C r e a t i v e C o m m o n sA2K and A2Medicines

Indigenous Knowledge

RIAA

against for

Drug companies

Licensing agencies

Free softwarePirate Bay

C r e a t i v e C o m m o n sA2K and A2Medicines

Indigenous Knowledge

RIAA

against for

Drug companies

Licensing agencies

[depending on whether you’re acting as a

consumer or producer of intellectual property]

(5) Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

1. The only incentive for innovation is financial2. In the software and publishing fields, you make money by selling copies3. Public services are most efficiently produced by the private/for-profit sector

REF: http://www.alistapart.com/articles/the-wisdom-of-community/

Smashing myths

(6) And now?

1. Simplicity2. Interface3. Aggregation4. Participation5. Motivation6. Scores

REF: http://www.alistapart.com/articles/the-wisdom-of-community/

The wisdom of community

Talk back

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