Looking Back At Copyright Predictions

Techdirt has an interesting look back at some of the more interesting predictions on copyright. The article looks at two different pre-DMCA papers and compares them to what has happened in the world of copyright. "The second paper is by Pamela Samuelson, and it discusses (again, quite accurately) the coming power grab by "copyright maximalists" via the DMCA, entitled The Copyright Grab. It clearly saw the intention of the DMCA to remove user rights, and grant highly questionable additional rights and powers to copyright holders in an online world. Samuelson lays out many concerns about where this is headed -- including how these proposals appear to trample certain fair use rights -- and in retrospect, her fears seem to have been backed up by history. Samuelson, by the way, has just written a new paper that is also worth reading pointing out how ridiculous current copyright statutory rates are -- an issue of key importance in the ongoing Tenebaum lawsuit, which (thankfully) the judge in the case is going to consider."

Comments

Re:Need to make it clear

[TinBromide]

Lets invade New York, I never liked them anyway.

Re:Exxon Shipping Co. v. Baker

[noidentity]

Exxon Shipping Co. v. Baker held that "a ratio of no more than one-to-one between compensatory and punitive damages is generally appropriate in maritime cases". In other words, punitive damages cannot exceed compensatory damages. If this were applied to copyright infringement[...]

Copyright infringement? This clearly applies to all acts of piracy, both on and off sea!

Re:Copyright Law

[Voyager529]

There is a saying about how you don't change Washington, it changes you.

So then in Soviet Russia, do you change Soviet Russia?

Re:Need to make it clear

[Anonymous Coward]

Get out while you still can ;)