Comments on: Smithsonian Copyright Scheme Challenged http://madisonian.net/2007/05/22/smithsonian-copyright-scheme-challenged/ a blog about law, tech, culture, and related things Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:58:52 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Frank Pasquale http://madisonian.net/2007/05/22/smithsonian-copyright-scheme-challenged/comment-page-1/#comment-211777 Frank Pasquale Wed, 23 May 2007 20:27:13 +0000 http://madisonian.net/archives/2007/05/22/smithsonian-copyright-scheme-challenged/#comment-211777 great analysis of this issue! This reminds me of CUllen Murphy's comparison of the U.S. to Rome; more and more essential government functions get outsourced to privateers: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/13/books/review/Isaacson-t.html?ex=1180065600&en=3bac330ba2e7c5c0&ei=5070 it also goes to show how important it is for digital archiving of copyrighted works (As part of the deposit requirement) is. Diane Zimmerman and Hannibal Travis have very interesting pieces in that area. great analysis of this issue! This reminds me of CUllen Murphy’s comparison of the U.S. to Rome; more and more essential government functions get outsourced to privateers:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/13/books/review/Isaacson-t.html?ex=1180065600&en=3bac330ba2e7c5c0&ei=5070

it also goes to show how important it is for digital archiving of copyrighted works (As part of the deposit requirement) is. Diane Zimmerman and Hannibal Travis have very interesting pieces in that area.

]]> By: Dave http://madisonian.net/2007/05/22/smithsonian-copyright-scheme-challenged/comment-page-1/#comment-211740 Dave Wed, 23 May 2007 16:59:39 +0000 http://madisonian.net/archives/2007/05/22/smithsonian-copyright-scheme-challenged/#comment-211740 Really interesting post. The Smithsonian’s approach seems to take the shrinkwrap licensing debate a step farther; there owners could at least say that they imposed additional conditions on use as a condition of access, which one could take as a licensing term. Here, the Smithsonian isn’t purporting to license at all but just asserting the existence of rights beyond the scope of copyright. (Though they could easily try to shoehorn their approach into a licensing paradigm by saying in browsewrap “as a condition of accessing this website, you must agree to the following terms”). The guerrilla approach to the Smithsonian’s strategy wins points for dramatic effect, but I wonder if these kinds of strong-arm strategy may be worse for the public domain in the long run because they will ultimately just force owners to develop better means of controlling their information goods. Owners who find that their assertions of legal right go ignored or flouted may just turn to technological methods of controlling access and use, which may well be a more effective strategy for them anyway. Randy Picker has a great article in which he suggests that DRM will lead to the propertization of copyright (by which he means greater private control over copyrighted material) by providing information goods with excludability. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=329340 Really interesting post. The Smithsonian’s approach seems to take the shrinkwrap licensing debate a step farther; there owners could at least say that they imposed additional conditions on use as a condition of access, which one could take as a licensing term. Here, the Smithsonian isn’t purporting to license at all but just asserting the existence of rights beyond the scope of copyright. (Though they could easily try to shoehorn their approach into a licensing paradigm by saying in browsewrap “as a condition of accessing this website, you must agree to the following terms”).

The guerrilla approach to the Smithsonian’s strategy wins points for dramatic effect, but I wonder if these kinds of strong-arm strategy may be worse for the public domain in the long run because they will ultimately just force owners to develop better means of controlling their information goods. Owners who find that their assertions of legal right go ignored or flouted may just turn to technological methods of controlling access and use, which may well be a more effective strategy for them anyway. Randy Picker has a great article in which he suggests that DRM will lead to the propertization of copyright (by which he means greater private control over copyrighted material) by providing information goods with excludability. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=329340

]]> By: Frank http://madisonian.net/2007/05/22/smithsonian-copyright-scheme-challenged/comment-page-1/#comment-211598 Frank Wed, 23 May 2007 03:45:17 +0000 http://madisonian.net/archives/2007/05/22/smithsonian-copyright-scheme-challenged/#comment-211598 Reminds me of schemes to privatize water. Are we that unwilling to preserve open access to our heritage? THe 13 hours calculation is fantastic. Reminds me of schemes to privatize water. Are we that unwilling to preserve open access to our heritage? THe 13 hours calculation is fantastic.

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