Real Copyright Reform

The Inspiration

Today’s copyright law in the US and the UK only serves the interests of a minority of participants in the creative industries and the knowledge economy. The debate in Britain about the Digital Economy Bill is actually trying to avoid confronting whether the UK and by implication the World’s intellectual property law framework is fit for the 21st Century.  Jessica Litman at the University of Michigan’s Law School has published a paper called Real Copyright Reform, see the Abstract & Download, in which, among other things, she argues there are four roles, and its her paper that inspired my blog snip, Copyright Stake Holders, dated 30th March, and that copyright law needs to serve a balanced interest of all participants. (Interestingly she misses the interests of non participants). …

Copyright Stakeholders

There are four interested parties in copyright law, authors, distributors, makers and users. Why is today’s copyright law only in one group’s interests?

Actually there are five, because the lawmakers are meant to hold the ring?

Why aren’t they doing this in the UK?

And why are authors identifying with the distributors? You need to change sides, the people you support aren’t your friends. …

You can’t keep the Spies out

While continuing to think about the privacy and regulatory issues that Cloud computing raises, I was point at this article in the NY Times, called “Does Cloud Computing Mean More Risks to Privacy?“, which looks at the US legal position and points out that the US police and even civil investigators will find it easier to get data from third parties than from the entities originally authorised to have access to private data. The article seems to have been categorised as news due to the release of the World Privacy Forum’s latest report, “Privacy in the Clouds“, …