Copyright in Cyberspace

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The real-time online discussion of the class will again take place on etherpad.

The Internet has enabled individuals to become involved in the production of media and to distribute their contributions widely at a very low cost. The former bastion of the entertainment industry is opening up to what many are calling a democratization of culture. The copyright doctrine of fair use seemingly bolsters the right to "recut, reframe, and recycle" previous works, but the protection fair use gives to those re-purposing copyrighted material is notoriously uncertain.

Digital and file-sharing technologies also spawned the proliferation of sharing of media and music, which has led to a number of controversial legal and technological strategies. The "notice-and-takedown" provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") allow Internet service providers to limit their liability for the copyright infringements of their users if the ISPs expeditiously remove material in response to complaints from copyright owners. The DMCA provides for counter-notice and "put-back" of removed material, but some argue that the statutory mechanism can chill innovative, constitutionally-protected speech.

This class provides an overview of some major copyright law concepts, with an emphasis on issues relating to music, and takes up some of the issues swirling around copyright in cyberspace.

Required Readings

Additional Readings (Optional)

Class Resources

Class Introduction

Wow! Someone screwed up! Sorry to introduce the class at halftime folks! Copyright in cyberspace, or in the physical, breathing world is addled with problematic and obsolete policy.

While the law was written to protect the rights of the author or creator of "original works of authorship", the time period in which copyright protection endures is 70 years after authors death, and by my lights far too long. Despite the very grey area of "fair use", in the field of education, copyright continues to impose harsh limitations on how content can be used, shared, distributed, and reformatted. Many faculty at this very school (HLS) grapple with copyright clearence for coursepacks, exposing copyrighted material accessible within commercial databases, and using our own purchased material for course reserve. Do I sound like a frustrted librarian helping faculty deal with the copyright issues they must overcome for the mere attempt to teach? I am.

It would be easy enough to introduce the class to some of the "basics of copyright" by regurgitating the first assigned reading. I found this writing to be as clear a basics on copyright as there is. What I would rather do is ask what would be a good path forward to change this law? Like language, laws can change over time and new copyright law needs to be written --Or do educators continue to go out of their way, expending valuable financial and personal resources, to abide by a law broken consistently and each day at a public scanner in a local library.

All apologies for the late into --lame move on my part. Mike

Class Discussion

I thought the reading on the settlement case with YouTube/Google was really interesting in light of both the Free Culture book as well as the brief on the 'NvD' case. The idea of groups with power manipulating the legal system runs counter in many ways to the more common theme of the internet being a democratizing force. In particular, if Viacom was trying to build their case by creating the appearance of illegal content distribution, I'm assuming this case is only at the beginning of a series of suits which will increase the ambiguity of consent of distribution. Thoughts? - Matthew

This Week's Presentations and Responses

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