[p2p-research] Fwd: [fcforum] Fw: iPad DRM is a dangerous step backward. Sign the petition!

[Kevin Carson]

On 2/5/10, M. Fioretti <mfioretti at nexaima.net> wrote:

>  To use a buzzword, is as anti-web-2.0 as it can be. Think to all the
>  fuss about EVERYBODY being finally empowered by the net to be a
>  producer, or just to express himself..
>
>  Are you seriously saying that an individual should register with some
>  central office any SINGLE blog post or picture he publishes to be
>  entitled to copyright? Do you want to generate ANOTHER sets of huge
>  central public offices very expensive to maintain, just to shuffle
>  paperwork around, or, much worse, a set of bureaucratic procedures
>  that would quickly be made so complicated and expensive that only
>  corporations would be able to claim copyright? Look at the current
>  status of patents.

Not at all.  Stipulating that copyright exists, I don't object to its
being automatic at the time of writing, without registering with a
central authority.  I do, however, think that claiming it should
require embedding some kind of notice in the artifact itself, and a
prominent mention of the claim in the medium in which it is initially
published.  And someone who reproduces content without such a claim
embedded  or prominently displayed with it, on the assumption that
it's unowned or orphan, should only be liable for a takedown
notice--not damages.  There should not be the automatic assumption
that every song, book or image is proprietary content, even if no
copyright notice is included in it, with the burden of proof on the
user to do a "title search."


> No, this is ONLY the result of the excessive length of copyright. The
>  truth is that if copyright had never been no more than 10 or even 20
>  years, 90% at least of that sea of orphan content would be a sea of
>  public domain stuff that everybody could use as they please, without
>  asking any permission.
>
>  Almost all the actual damage caused by current copyright legislation
>  is simply a direct or indirect consequence of the current
>  _duration_. Cut that down and, while the philosofical difference
>  between advocates and attackers of copyright will still remain, there
>  will be way less practical damages to argue about.

Maybe.  But without some burden of proof to display a copyright date
with the work how will anyone know when the ten years expires?

Although I'm  an anarchist, I'm pretty sane about welcoming steps in
the right direction.

-- 
Kevin Carson
Center for a Stateless Society http://c4ss.org
The Homebrew Industrial Revolution
http://homebrewindustrialrevolution.wordpress.com/
Mutualist Blog:  Free Market Anti-Capitalism
http://mutualist.blogspot.com
Organization Theory:  A Libertarian Perspective
http://mutualist.blogspot.com/2005/12/studies-in-anarchist-theory-of.html