Wednesday, January 25, 2012

The Cost of Free Culture

Robert Levine, The Wall Street Journal, Jan. 25, 2012

From the article: "Amid controversy over attempts to thwart online piracy, a Google lawyer proposes reforms to a system that satisfies no one…William Patry, a prolific and respected legal scholar who is now Google's senior copyright counsel, takes such a dim view of efforts to protect intellectual property that he seems somewhat uncomfortable with the very idea of a commercial market for creative work. Mr. Patry argues that different kinds of work should get different kinds of protection. He suggests that creators be required to register their copyrights after a certain amount of time in order to maintain them—a good idea, given that under current law even works as minor as family photos receive automatic legal protection. At the same time, he recommends a "use-it-or-lose-it" provision under which rights to out-of-print works would revert to their creators." Read more

See Also
How to Fix Copyright
William Patry, December 2011