More Lessig v. Ashcroft

Every week or so the tech weblog world (or at least the portion that I view) aligns on one issue. This week it’s the Lessig arguments in the Eldred case before the Supreme court.

Matthew Haughey, “Copyright and the Commons”:

"As the law currently stands, this very piece I've written here and the image I made to accompany it are protected from someone trying to sell it and pass it off as their own, and that's great for me as an artist/writer. Yet that also means neither will be available for reprinting, repurposing, or any other use without my permission for a very long time. If I die on my 75th birthday, you'll be free to reuse the above image or this text in 2117. Is that what copyright was intended for?"

Another timely piece I enjoyed was a Salon article titled “Riding along with the Internet Bookmobile”. Boing Boing summarized it well:

"Brewster's Bookmobile is a van with a sat dish, a duplexing printer, and access to thousands of public-domain children's books. As a dramatic demonstration of the value of the public domain -- which Larry Lessig is arguing today before the Supreme Court -- Brewster is driving the Bookmobile across the country, stopping in working-class neighborhoods and printing books on demand for school libraries."

And then there’s this ridiculous headline from the United Press International web site: “Case could strip Disney of Mickey”. File that one under oversimplification or misinformation, your choice.

Manton Reece @manton