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

The usual Information Wants to be Free

[FlyingGuy]

drivel, but I have yet to see a comprehensive solution offered up by anyone that covers everyone fairly

Who are the people that need protecting?

• Content creators. Yes those people who actually write a book, play, music, software application, movie script, etc.
• Content owners. Yes those people whom have purchased the rights, first north american, first world wide, all rights, some rights, or whatever the agreement is that was made with the original content owner

How long do they deserve this protection for? 1 Year, 1000 years? And should that protection be different for content creators then content owners ( except when they are the same entity) ?

Should this protection be and estate protection, in other words, is it inheritable? Could I as a content creator / owner leave that protection in my will to my heirs? If so how long should that protection last, or should it? Would that same estate protection be enjoyed by content owners?

What agreements should be legal? Should it be legal for a person, as an employee of a company who pays them a salary to create a specific content, to be bound by an agreement of employment to assign all protection to that company? And if so, does that company fall under the definition of creator, owner or both of that content?

There are many difficult questions to be answered before a sweeping grand reform of protections granted under the term copyright can even be attempted.

I await your collective responses with curiosity.

Re:Democratic?

[thefringthing]

There's only one choice: A and B are both "Priveleged White Fatcat Oligarchy Party".