For a library science class, I wrote a paper on the problem of orphan works -- what do you do when you want to preserve or copy something, but cannot locate the copyright holder to seek permission or compensate them? It's a knotty problem, hardly promoting progress. Read more about the orphan works problem here and here.
I quote from a lot of books on this blog. I believe the quotations I use are permissible as a fair use under copyright law -- I'm commenting on the work, and I don't believe my quoting of the works undermines the commercial prospects of the books about which I write. In fact, just the opposite; I hope people will be inspired by my blog to purchase them or borrow them from a library. (Read more about copyright and fair use here.)
I also make a good faith effort not to link to works that I suspect have been posted to the Internet without permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright is a funny thing: If there's not enough, people don't have much incentive to create. Too much, though, and it stifles creativity by preventing people from building on the works of others. (This is a particular problem for popular music like hip-hop and techno.) My favorite book on this topic is Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How It Threatens Creativity, by Siva Vaidhyanathan. Nancy Kranich, former president of the American Library Association, says of his book (and I agree):
Siva Vaidhyanathan has done a big favor for the academic and library communities. In this book, he has spelled out in clear, understandable language what's at stake in the battles over the nation's intellectual property. The issues brought forward are critical to the future of scholarship and creativity. Librarians and academics are wise to purchase this book and add it to their 'must read' lists.
If you have any questions or concerns about copyright and this blog, feel free to contact me: spoonreader [at] gmail [dot] com.
2 comments:
has someone been hassling you about this?
That's a great question, thanks, Ari. The answer is no, nobody has been hassling me. I've been meaning to post a note on copyright for a long time, and I'm only now getting around to it. I just think it's an interesting issue. Also, I see a lot of copyright violations when I'm out surfing around on the net, so I think it's something we readers need to be aware of. Most frequently, I see magazine articles posted in their entirety to people's web sites. I understand why people do it -- they're excited about the article's ideas or content. But it's still not fair to the author.
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