Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Article: Is Copyright the Buggy Whip of the Digital Age?

I am more focused on copyright these days than most, since I'm teaching a course on copyright this semester.  The clash between copyright law and use has sparked lively discussion and I'm sure this article will add to it.

Judy Shapiro wrote this article on a Copyright Clearance Center conference entitled "The Collision of Ideas 2010."The two-page article is a quick read and will give you food for thought (and argument).  I especially like the story that David Hoffman, a noted PBS video documentarian, told about his Sputnik documentary.

As my students are realizing, copyright law can be both freeing and confining.  The word used by Jim Griffin, the founder of OneHouse, is "yoke".  To me, that implies the burden of work...and copyright clearance can indeed be work.

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