Copyright as Cudgel

kongstad writes "In an issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education, Siva Vaidhyanathan has some interesting things to say about the concept of Copyright: 'Back in the 20th century, if someone had accused you of copyright infringement, you enjoyed that quaint and now seemingly archaic guarantee of due process. Today, due process is a lot harder to pursue, and the burden of proof increasingly is on those accused of copyright infringement.'" A very good academic look at the recent expansions of copyright law.

And who was president....

[Anonymous Coward]

when the DMCA came into existence? Oh that's right, Bill Clinton. I could just as easy use your logic to blame the democratic party for allowing one of the worst pieces of legislation ever to be passed. It's not political parties that are to blame, it's greed, and unfortunately it's no respecter of persons.

Re:Trivia.

[rlwhite]

James Madison did: info here [usc.edu]

Re:Technology is part of the reason for the change

[Dr Caleb]

While your arguement is essentially correct, that wasn't the point of the article.

It wasn't about piracy or illegal reproduction and distribution of I.P. or copyrighted material, it was about fair use, and how the DMCA has squashed it.

It's about how now everything is 'Intellectual Property' and how anyone using something deemed to be IP, even in a fair use situation, must defend themselves in court. It's about how, because of the DMCA, it becomes a battle of 'our corporate lawyers are better than your court appointed lawyer'.

Violation of FCC "equal time" rule?

[yerricde]

In order to ensure that campaign financing doesn't dry up these greedy bastards (Like Senator HOLLINGS from SC) will draft legislation that is favorable to the corporations.

Here's the problem. In some cases, such corporations are television networks. A network (such as AOL/CNN, Disney/ABC, MSNBC, etc) gives money to a politician's campaign, and then come campaign time, the politician gives it right back to the network to buy 30-second spots. In effect, the network has given the politician free promotion through a loophole in the FCC's "equal time" rule that states that a radio or TV station must make advertising time available to all candidates under the same terms.

Siva Vaidhyanathan interviewed on Slashdot

[haaz]

I had the pleasure of interviewing Siva Vaidhyanathan, which appeared on this very site [slashdot.org]. And I just posted the full, uncut version over here [indymedia.org]. It's a few pages longer than what was posted here.

Good luck at NYU, Siva!

-- haaz

ps - haaz.net is temporarily down.