I'm almost through Lawrence Lessig's Free Culture.
Those familiar with his work won't find much that is new, but the piece is written in a chatty style and makes his points crisply (I can't say the same for some of his earlier works). There is a tension between copyright holders and users - and the tension is now very much out of balance. The fix is to rework copyright law.
Upon reflection, it should be obvious that in the world with the Internet, copies should not be the trigger for copyright law. More precisely, they should not always be the trigger for copyright law.[this idea is] perhaps the central claim of the book, so let me take this very slowly so that the point is not easily missed. My claim is that the Internet should at least force us to rethink the conditions under which the law of copyright automatically extends, because it is clear that the current reach of copyright was never contemplated, much less chosen, by the legislators who enacted copyright law.
Thus, my argument is not that in each place that copyright law extends, we should repeal it. It is instead that we should have a good argument for it extending where it does, and should not determine its reach on the basis of arbitrary and automatic changes caused by technology.
Lessig provides more than a few interesting examples.
Perhaps I've been a bit too close to this, but I recommend it.
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