The document discusses the changing role of copyright in the information society through three questions:
1) What will happen to copyright's role? It argues current laws are becoming difficult to enforce and will threaten free speech if enforcement is broadened.
2) What is copyright protection aimed at - creativity or the work? Creativity is now seen as an evolutionary process rather than the work of genius. New forms of collaborative creation are emerging.
3) How should creativity be organized and protected? Historically it was to provide economic incentives, but what now produces existential value as industries change rapidly? Future protection may focus on institutions that facilitate, not restrict, creativity.
10. ”Governments of the Industrial
World, you weary giants of flesh
and steel, I come from
Cyberspace, the new home of
Mind. On behalf of the future, I
ask you of the past to leave us
alone. You are not welcome
among us. You have no
sovereignty where we gather.”
11. ”I declare the global social space we
are building to be naturally
independent of the tyrannies you
seek to impose on us. You have no
moral right to rule us nor do you
possess any methods of enforcement
we have true reason to fear.”
12. Your legal concepts of
property, expression, identity,
movement, and context do
not apply to us. They are all
based on matter, and there is
no matter here.
13. ”We will create a civilization of
the Mind in Cyberspace.
May it be more
humane and fair
than the world your
governments have made before.”
24. "If nature has made any one thing less susceptible
than all others of exclusive property, it is the
action of the thinking power called an idea, which
an individual may exclusively possess as long as he
keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged,
it forces itself into the possession of everyone, and
the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it.”
25. "Its peculiar character, too, is that no one
possesses the less, because every other
possesses the whole of it. He who receives an
idea from me, receives instruction himself
without lessening mine; as he who lights his
taper at mine, receives light without darkening
me."
29. A commodity appears at first sight
an extremely obvious, trivial thing.
But its analysis brings out that it is
a very strange thing, abounding in
metaphysical subtleties and
theological niceties.
30. ”Sell a man a fish, he eats for a day,
teach a man how to fish, you ruin a
wonderful business opportunity.”
36. ”Furthermore, the increasing
difficulty of enforcing existing
copyright and patent laws is
already placing in peril the
ultimate source of intellectual
property, the free exchange of
ideas.”
37. That is, when the primary articles of
commerce in a society look so much
like speech as to be indistinguishable
from it, and when the traditional
methods of protecting their ownership
have become ineffectual, attempting to
fix the problem with broader and more
vigorous enforcement will inevitably
threaten freedom of speech.
38. ”The greatest constraint on your
future liberties may come not
from government but from
corporate legal departments
laboring to protect by force what
can no longer be protected by
practical efficiency or general
social consent.”
49. Creativity is universally agreed to be a
good that copyright law should seek
to promote, yet copyright scholarship
and policymaking have proceeded
largely on the basis of assumptions
about what it actually is...
161. On a macro level, in 2009 alone, the internet
allowed the “long tail” unsigned artists that
used TuneCore to generate over $32,000,000
in music sales by selling over 42,000,000
songs – this is more than one song a second
selling by a TuneCore Artist on iTunes. This
“long tail” catalog that TuneCore’s Aritsts
represent is now one of the most valuable
music catalogs in the world.
162. Kelly sold over 2,000,000 million tracks
William Fitzsimmons sold over 150,000 tracks
Soulja Boy sold over 200,000 tracks
Boyce Avenue sold over 1,200,000 tracks
Ron Pope sold over 250,000 tracks
Colt Ford sold over 300,000 tracks
Secondhand Serenade sold over 250,000 tracks
Tapes N Tapes sold over 200,000 tracks
Nevershoutnever sold over 1,000,000 tracks
Drake sold over 300,000 tracks
MGMT sold over 225,000 tracks
The Medic Droid sold over 150,00 tracks
Nickasaur sold over 150,000 tracks
Harry and the Potters sold over 200,000 tracks