cory doctorow, outreach director for the EFF

“civil liberties on the internet”

his disclaimer: this is a writer’s talk on copyright (not a lawyer’s)

copyright clause in constitution: promotes the useful arts and sciences, affords authors monopolies of limited times and scope. creators can exploit works, giving them the incentive to go on creating new works. does not give authors a perfect monopoly (different from law in other countries, e.g. france’s moral law).

congress is giving authors new copyright, taking rights away from the public. supreme court says in eldred case that 98% of works on copyright (since 1928) are not financially viable, not owned by anyone. that a work expires before copyright is in essence a “slow-motion burning of a library.”

hollywood born out of pirate film industry, 3000 miles out of reach of edison’s patent clerks in new jersey. disney creates steamboat willie in hollywood, intentionally ripping off other movies (music from steamboat bill).

a history: player pianos challenge sheet music. music industry wants an “orderly marketplace.” copyright law changes with technological trends. hollywood would not license movies to tv. walt offers disney vault to ABC, “wonderful world of color.” congress say broadcasters must license content to cable tv cos at fixed rate. sony creates betamax VCR which makes copies of copywritten work!!! congress legalizes VCR.

content protection status report (CPSR):

broadcast flag – stop internet retransmission of films, all digital television must check for broadcast flag, must be tamper resistant, which is bad for software-defined radio (GNU Radio) the “protean ur-radio”, the internet lets loose the “four horsemen of the infocolypse”: pirates, terrorist, mafia, child pornographers.

plugging the analog hole (aka “analog redistribution problem”), invisible watermark that when removed would destroy signal (not exactly feasible)

stopping P2P

cory is about to begin work for creative commons in the UK