Copyright as Cudgel

kongstad writes "In an issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education, Siva Vaidhyanathan has some interesting things to say about the concept of Copyright: 'Back in the 20th century, if someone had accused you of copyright infringement, you enjoyed that quaint and now seemingly archaic guarantee of due process. Today, due process is a lot harder to pursue, and the burden of proof increasingly is on those accused of copyright infringement.'" A very good academic look at the recent expansions of copyright law.

Comments

Re:Article slashdotted

[paladin_tom]

Dear sir:

We must inform you that this is copyrighted material. Under the terms of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DCMA), we must ask that you .....

;)

Re:Microsoft Lawyer

[Anonymous Coward]

As the copyright term goes from 40 years to 90 years, artists gain something like .5% in projected return on investment.

Yeah, but they're artists...math is a foreign concept to them. They have problems calculating how much change to give me when I buy an extra-value meal. To them, 90 years is (provided they do the math correctly ;) 50 years better than 40.

I interrupt this subthread to, again, advocate:

[pedro]

"Geeks' Day Off!"(TM)
One day a year (I like March 14.. 3/14 Get it?) when all whose smarts drive the engines of industry show these bastards who's boss by staying home, turning off the phones, pagers, everything.
Let 'em stew in the hell they hath created for 24 hrs. Maybe they'll think for once. You can't legislate intelligence into existence. We'd have 'em by the balls. We control supply.
Oh, and also forever refuse to prepare contingency plans for the event after the resounding success of the first one.
Sorta like Mayday. With teeth!
It's time, people!