Epeus' epigone

Edifying exquisite equine entrapments

Thursday, 3 October 2002

Digital Choice and Freedom

The Digital Choice and Freedom Act looks like a Good Thing, - detailed analysis over at lawmeme . Some of its clauses are a little odd:
It is now necessary to restore the traditional balance between copyright holders and society, as intended by the 105th Congress. Copyright laws in the digital age must prevent and punish digital pirates without treating every consumer as one.

They don't define the term 'digital pirate', though as this is in the rhetorical preamble that is I suppose understandable. I'd be a lot happier if the loaded terms 'pirate' and 'consumer' weren't in this bit. How about 'It is now necessary to restore the traditional balance between copyright holders and society, as intended by the 105th Congress. Copyright laws in the digital age must prevent and punish unfair republication without treating every customer as a thief.

A "digital work" is any literary work (except a computer program), sound recording or musical work, or a dramatic work, motion picture, or other audiovisual work, in whole or in part in a digital or other nonanalog format.

Why does this definition explicitly exclude computer programs from it's ambit, and what is another nonanalog format?

(a) USE OF LAWFULLY OBTAINED DIGITAL WORKS. Notwithstanding the provisions of section 106, it is not an infringement of copyright for a person who lawfully obtains a copy or phonorecord of a digital work, or who lawfully receives a transmission of a digital work, to reproduce, store, adapt, or access the digital work
(1) for archival purposes, if all such archival copies are destroyed or rendered permanently inaccessible in the event that continued possession of the work should cease to be rightful; and
(2) in order to perform or display the work, or an adaptation of the work, on a digital media device, if such performance or display is not public.


This is good, but it is not clear that 'adapting' includes editing or incorporating it in another work. What I'd really like to see is an explicit statement that would allow derivative works that require a full lawfully obtained copy of the original work to be purchased to be distributed. This would legitimise a great deal of creative work already being produced, such as additional commentary tracks for DVDs to 'mash-up' mixes and other kinds of media collage that currently are in a grey area
Posted by Kevin Marks at 08:00

No comments:

Post a comment

Newer Post Older Post Home
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

This is my personal blog. Any views you read here are mine, and not my employers'.

Atom Feed

Support the Open Rights Group
My photoKevin Marks Me on Twitter
Me on G+

People's thoughts I read:

Daily

Rosie
San Jose Young People's Theatre
Dave Weinberger
Doc Searls
Gonzo Engaged
AKMA
Cory & friends
Denise Howell
Charles Wiltgen
Shelley Powers
James Lileks
Suw Charman
Halley Suitt

Weekly

Andrew Marks
Blogsisters
Arts & Letters Daily
Bricklin, Frankston & Reed
Steve Yost
Jeneane Sessum
Brian Micklethwait et al
Tom Matrullo
Gary Turner

Sporadically

Small Pieces
Stuart Cheshire
RageBoy
Nonzero
Neil Gaiman
Thomas Vincent
Brad deLong
Andrew Odlyzko
ProSUA

No to Mickey Mouse Computers

powered by blogger

Blog archive

  • ►  2017 (2)
    • ►  May (1)
    • ►  April (1)
  • ►  2015 (7)
    • ►  November (2)
    • ►  May (3)
    • ►  April (1)
    • ►  January (1)
  • ►  2014 (3)
    • ►  October (1)
    • ►  April (2)
  • ►  2013 (5)
    • ►  June (1)
    • ►  May (1)
    • ►  April (2)
    • ►  March (1)
  • ►  2012 (8)
    • ►  December (1)
    • ►  May (1)
    • ►  April (1)
    • ►  March (1)
    • ►  January (4)
  • ►  2011 (11)
    • ►  December (1)
    • ►  November (1)
    • ►  September (2)
    • ►  August (2)
    • ►  July (1)
    • ►  April (2)
    • ►  January (2)
  • ►  2010 (16)
    • ►  November (1)
    • ►  October (1)
    • ►  September (3)
    • ►  June (1)
    • ►  May (2)
    • ►  April (2)
    • ►  March (2)
    • ►  February (2)
    • ►  January (2)
  • ►  2009 (22)
    • ►  November (2)
    • ►  October (2)
    • ►  September (2)
    • ►  August (3)
    • ►  July (2)
    • ►  June (2)
    • ►  May (2)
    • ►  April (1)
    • ►  February (2)
    • ►  January (4)
  • ►  2008 (29)
    • ►  December (2)
    • ►  November (3)
    • ►  August (1)
    • ►  July (3)
    • ►  June (3)
    • ►  May (5)
    • ►  April (2)
    • ►  February (3)
    • ►  January (7)
  • ►  2007 (45)
    • ►  November (3)
    • ►  October (4)
    • ►  September (4)
    • ►  August (10)
    • ►  July (3)
    • ►  June (8)
    • ►  April (2)
    • ►  March (6)
    • ►  February (3)
    • ►  January (2)
  • ►  2006 (119)
    • ►  December (13)
    • ►  November (8)
    • ►  October (16)
    • ►  September (10)
    • ►  August (3)
    • ►  July (6)
    • ►  June (24)
    • ►  May (3)
    • ►  April (10)
    • ►  March (7)
    • ►  February (8)
    • ►  January (11)
  • ►  2005 (101)
    • ►  December (10)
    • ►  November (13)
    • ►  October (9)
    • ►  September (8)
    • ►  August (7)
    • ►  July (7)
    • ►  June (8)
    • ►  May (12)
    • ►  April (7)
    • ►  March (6)
    • ►  February (1)
    • ►  January (13)
  • ►  2004 (53)
    • ►  December (8)
    • ►  November (5)
    • ►  October (6)
    • ►  September (7)
    • ►  July (5)
    • ►  June (3)
    • ►  May (2)
    • ►  March (3)
    • ►  February (7)
    • ►  January (7)
  • ►  2003 (196)
    • ►  December (12)
    • ►  November (14)
    • ►  October (21)
    • ►  September (23)
    • ►  August (19)
    • ►  July (11)
    • ►  June (14)
    • ►  May (9)
    • ►  April (22)
    • ►  March (20)
    • ►  February (16)
    • ►  January (15)
  • ▼  2002 (225)
    • ►  December (15)
    • ►  November (21)
    • ▼  October (22)
      • AlienAid - Guy Fawkes and Halloween - London, UK ...
      • AlienAid - Telephone Numbers - London, UK to Bay A...
      • Has Google stopped spidering?
      • AlienAid - Bacon - London, UK to Bay Area, CA, US
      • AlienAid - Tea - London, UK to Bay Area, CA, US
      • AlienAid
      • Oops - Daylight saved
      • Congestion control for RSS
      • The Fallacy of the Almost-General-Purpose Computer
      • Neal Stephenson: Jipi and the Paranoid Chip
      • Sorry Eric!
      • Digital Identity through tone of voice
      • Trust people, not computers!
      • Gary Loveman Harrahs COO
      • The Strategy that Works - Larry Downes
      • Dan'l Lewin on .NET
      • Panel Andy Grove and Clayton Christensen
      • Clayton Christenson - The Innovators Solution
      • interactive conference?
      • Digital Choice and Freedom
      • Conferring today
      • Quote of the day
    • ►  September (12)
    • ►  August (11)
    • ►  July (28)
    • ►  June (19)
    • ►  May (29)
    • ►  April (18)
    • ►  March (19)
    • ►  February (17)
    • ►  January (14)
  • ►  2001 (13)
    • ►  December (2)
    • ►  November (11)

About Me

My photo
Kevin Marks
Kevin Marks works on IndieWeb and open web tech. From 2011 to 2013 he was VP of Open Cloud Standards at Salesforce. From 2009 to 2010 he was VP of Web Services at BT. From 2007 to 2009, he worked at Google on OpenSocial. From 2003 to 2007 he was Principal Engineer at Technorati responsible for the spiders that make sense of the web and track millions of blogs daily. He has been inventing and innovating for over 25 years in emerging technologies where people, media and computers meet. Before joining Technorati, Kevin spent 5 years in the QuickTime Engineering team at Apple, building video capture and live streaming into OS X. He was a founder of The Multimedia Corporation in the UK, where he served as Production Manager and Executive Producer, shipping million-selling products and winning International awards. He has a Masters degree in Physics from Cambridge University and is a BBC-qualified Video Engineer. One of the driving forces behind microformats.org, he regularly speaks at conferences and symposia on emergent net technologies and their cultural impact.
View my complete profile