Copyright Battles Abound

Copyright is a tug-of-war that, as Lewis Hyde explained, has been a lively debate for centuries.  The Berkman Center has addressed the issue from a number of angles over the past ten years, including: the incubation of Creative Commons, Prof. Fisher's Promises to Keep, and the Digital Media Project, to name a few.  So the activity in recent weeks has obviously piqued the interest of a large portion of our community.

Fashion week served as the catalyst for the first development, as the debate over the copyright of fashion designs made its way from the runways of New York City to both the House and Senate floors in the form of the Design Piracy Prohibition Act. Seeking to halt discount clothing producers from replicating designs, proponents of the legislation claim that it will seriously reduce "knock-offs."  BoingBoing's Corey Doctorow disagreed with that sentiment and claims that not only are sales unaffected by such practices, but to apply copyrights to fashion designs would be a "regulatory monopoly."

Hitting even closer to home was a tussle at the Coop - Harvard's Book Store - last Thursday.  A student-run website Crimson Reading was collecting ISBNs from course materials for undergraduates at the college.  The site offers students the chance to find the least expensive retailer of their semester books and packets.  The students were promptly escorted out by police and were told they were violating the copyright of the bookstore.  A thrilling discussion is sure to take place regarding this issue and the rights of the bookstore versus the rights of the students.

We will keep a close eye on these issues as they develop and for further information be sure to read Visiting Professor, faculty fellow, and copyright expert Pam Samuelson's most recent work, "Preliminary Thoughts on Copyright Reform."