The "Copyright Black Hole" Swallowing Our Culture

An anonymous reader writes "James Boyle, professor at Duke Law School, has a piece in the Financial Times in which he argues that a 'copyright black hole is swallowing our culture.' He explains some of the issues surrounding Google Books, and makes the point that these issues wouldn't exist if we had a sane copyright law. Relatedly, in recent statements to the still-skeptical European Commission, Google has defended their book database by saying that it helps to make the Internet democratic. Others have noted that the database could negatively affect some researchers for whom a book's subject matter isn't always why they read it."

Comments

Re:Copyright law IS a black hole...

[BitZtream]

First off, The idea that you can apply your shitty virus infected 'license' to my comments in ludicrous, stop being such a retarded fanboy of GPL. Why do you people think this license is the end all be all and that everyone on the planet wants to be a hippie?

Second, if someone takes an idea I threw on slashdot and turns it into a profit making machine, more power too them, thats my fault for not doing it myself. By your logic, you can not do anything ever, because I'm right now telling you that I've thought of every idea that will ever be capable of making any money and I own the idea. If you try to make money, my lawyers will be at your door. Yes, thats a stupid statement, but it fits right in line with what you are saying.

What you are proposing to 'fight the problem' is exactly the problem, retarded people who think adding more barriers to reusing an existing idea is a good thing.

As for the lawyers, as another reply to your post says ... they day that happens is they day someone gets shot in my front yard.