Sunday, December 28, 2008

Welcome to Copyrights & Campaigns

Welcome to Copyrights & Campaigns. My plan for this blog is to provide a forum for analysis of copyright, First Amendment, and related issues from a reasonable pro-copyright-owner perspective, with emphasis on the interaction of these issues with campaigns and the political process.

One of my motivations for starting this blog is the shocking lack of balance in discussion of copyright and related issues on the Internet. Want a blog arguing that copyright law is far too strong, that content owners routinely abuse the law, that DRM is evil, and that the real problem isn’t piracy, but instead copyright owners’ efforts to fight it? Those are a dime a dozen. But just try to find blogs taking the side of copyright owners, championing the value of copyright, arguing why infringement is wrong, or that DRM is a useful tool. There are a few, but best stick to reading copyright owners' legal briefs -- not the blogs. Copyright owners actually have a pretty good story to tell; they just haven't chosen to tell it in the blogosphere. The goal here is to play a part in changing that.

2 comments:

  1. Hi - Saw Jonah's post and clicked right over. What resource to you recommend to explain the intricacies of copyright law? I have some specific questions I haven't been able to find answers to by simple googling. One example is music that's centuries old, but unless I go to some library in Europe to see it, have to rely on copyrighted books for the material I'd like to use as a source for new arrangements.

    My basic question, though, is can these sorts of questions be navigated without hiring a copyright lawyer?

    Apologies if this is somehow off point.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It seems to me that the key difference in the types of copyright blogs is defining "reasonable."

    ReplyDelete

Comments here are moderated. I appreciate substantive comments, whether or not they agree with what I've written. Stay on topic, and be civil. Comments that contain name-calling, personal attacks, or the like will be rejected. If you want to rant about how evil the RIAA and MPAA are, and how entertainment companies' employees and attorneys are bad people, there are plenty of other places for you to go.

 
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