The case for copyright reform

 Rick Falkvinge and Christian Engström wrote “The Case for Copyright Reform” in 2012, which sets out the case for a modern-day copyright regime. In this week's blog, I'll share my reflections on Chapter 2 of their book.


The authors in this chapter wrote about six points and I will describe and talk about each of them.

 • Moral Rights Unchanged

We propose no changes at all to the moral right of the author to be recognized as the author. Nobody should be allowed to claim that they are ABBA, or have written all of Paul McCartney’s songs unless they actually are or have. To the extent that this is a real-world problem, it should still be illegal to do so. ”Give credit where credit is due” is a good maxim that everybody agrees with.

Everyone should own their property and be able to do what they want with it.


• Free Non-Commercial Sharing 

The writers want to put copyright back to its roots and make it crystal clear that it only applies to industrial copying. If achieved by private people without a commercial motive, distributing copies, or otherwise spreading or making use of someone else's copyrighted material, should never be banned. Peer-to-peer file sharing is an example of potentially legitimate practice.


• 20 Years Of Commercial Monopoly

The authors want to shorten the protection time to something that is reasonable from both society’s and an investor’s point of view, and propose 20 years from publication. 


• Registration After 5 Years

Copyright protection should be given automatically like it is today to newly published works, but rights owners who want to continue to exercise their commercial exclusivity of a work beyond the first 5 years after publication should be required to register the right, in such a way that it can be found by a diligent search of public rights databases. This will solve the orphan works problem.


• Free Sampling 

The authors want to change this by introducing clear exceptions and limitations to allow remixes and parodies, as well as quotation rights for sound and audiovisual material modeled after the quotation rights that already exist for text. 


• A Ban on DRM

It must always be legal to circumvent DRM restrictions, and we should consider introducing a ban in the consumer rights legislation on DRM technologies that restrict legal uses of a work. There is no point in having our parliaments introduce a balanced and reasonable copyright legislation, if at the same time we allow the big multinational corporations to write their own laws, and enforce them through technical means.


All and all, we all know the copyright restrictions are too harsh and they are only getting worse each year, thankfully I think we have it better in Europe, in the USA you can go to prison if you use copyright material. There is such thing as fair use and the definition that needs to be better and more friendly. 

This article strides to make copyright better and I fully support it

Komentarji

Objavite komentar

Priljubljene objave iz tega spletnega dnevnika

Pre-history

The Computer Science Network  The Computer Science Network (CSNET) was a computer network in the United States that started running in 1981. Its goal was to expand networking benefits to departments of computer science at academic and research institutions that could not be explicitly linked to ARPANET due to restrictions on funding or authorization. There had been three major components of CSNET project: an email relaying program (Delaware and RAND), a name service (Wisconsin), and tunnelling infrastructure TCP/IP-over-X.25 (Purdue). Initial access was by dial-up telephone or X.29/X.25 terminal emulation via email relay, via gateways at Delaware and RAND. TCP/IP, even running over X.25, was finally introduced to CSNET access. The network operated from 1981 until its eventual shut down in 1991, where it was replaced with more advanced networks. The network was a great early start for internet and it had a great influence on the internet in its culture, where you can still feel its infl
Preberite več

How do blind people use a computer?

 How do blind people use a computer? Despite the fact that blind people can type on ordinary keyboards, they must rely on specific software and hardware to view the information shown on a computer screen. Screen Readers A screen reader is a piece of software that interprets what's on the screen and relays it to the user via a text-to-speech engine or a refreshable braille monitor. It allows blind and visually disabled individuals to read notes, search the internet, submit e-mails, and work through an application's menus and dialogue boxes. Since blind people cannot use a mouse, they must rely solely on keyboard commands to complete tasks that sighted people can complete with a mouse. These keyboard commands include those integrated into the computer's operating system or a specific software program, such as CTRL+C for copying the selected text. A refreshable braille monitor is a computer-connected electronic interface with a USB or Bluetooth link. Its function is to display
Preberite več

Cencorship & Privacy

 In this blog post, I will highlight an example of online censorship and one of online privacy.  Cencorship: China’s biggest viral video hit of the year may have been Under the Dome, a documentary about China’s very serious environmental problems produced by CCTV host Chai Jing. The film was made with the government’s apparent consent, but as its popularity grew and more than 200 million people watched it, authorities apparently became nervous. The film was subsequently removed from many of China’s major video streaming platforms, and discussion of it online – which originally was being permitted – started to get censored. Privacy Zoom gave data to third parties without users’ knowledge. In April 2020 piece from The New York Times alleged that popular video conferencing site Zoom engaged in undisclosed data mining during user conversations. The coverage asserted that when a person signed into a meeting, Zoom transmitted their data to a system that matched individuals with their LinkedI
Preberite več