The story of mass digitization's effect on copyright law and policy is not over by any means. So far, it is a story of confronting fears, of one step forward and two steps back in some cases. Sometimes the only way to calm fears is just to stand up, stride towards the light switch, and [...]
Arguably the grandest of the grand mass digitization projects, the Google Book Search Project steps up the pressure to put full text online where anyone can readily access it. Once potential readers are able to learn about the existence and relevance of a text online, many (I would bet most) want to read that text [...]
Although mass digitization project proponents do not, for the most part, have the power to change the law (with the obvious exception of the Google Book Search project), their collections, once digitized and made freely available, contribute to the pressure on content industry business models. As more and more images of valuable cultural artifacts, more [...]
Copyright owners probably thought they got off to a good start legislatively: they took bold steps 10 years ago to strengthen their rights, fearing an erosion of control in the digital environment. Unfortunately, they designed their two major pieces of legislation, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, to [...]
Last [summer, June, 2007], at the International Creative Commons Summit in Dubrovnik, Croatia, Lawrence Lessig made a stunning announcement: he is going to retire from copyfighting and take up a new career, fighting for a new issue. He's going to stay involved with Creative Commons as its CEO, but from now on, he's working to [...]
