I just read, er heard, er seen, a presentation by Lawrence Lessig, a Stanford Law Professor who has made a name for himself as the Internet legal theorist. The presentation entitled <free culture> is really must see. Granted, his audience was a bunch of programmers, but he summarizes his ideas of a "creative commons" very well.

To summarize another article written about him:

He sees [the copyright extension acts] as legislation that protects the few (publishers) at the expense of the many (creators and consumers). As a free society, argues Lessig, we have the right to a rich public domain of software, music, and film, enabling "a creative process in which artists rip, mix, and burn the culture of the past," a culture which could be archived on the Web for all to use. Instead, our cultural heritage remains under lock and key. By repeatedly extending terms of copyright protection, says Lessig, we are denying ourselves this important resource, a "creative commons."

I try to make my web site "self-sustainable." That is, if I reference something, I "quote" the key points directly into my document. Quoting a copyrighted work falls under the realm of "fair use," and how could we not build upon our collective knowledge and even our high school book reports, if we couldn't "quote" other work. In fact, if you don't quote and footnote, your work is usually not taken seriously in scientific and academic circles.

However, with this new Digital Millennium Copyright Act we now can not do any such thing as there is no "fair use" anymore. Scientists, journalists, writers, artists, all build upon the work of others, and this is done by quoting and extending.

You'll notice that I put a © symbol on all of my web pages and my poetry. I am a lone person with small legal pockets, and if anyone wanted to steal my work, I wouldn't be able to defend my work (and probably wouldn't even know). I am also not that concerned that someone does steal my work, I really put the © symbol on my pages for the "look" … and possibly that I would like to communicate with anyone who thinks that my work is worth "quoting and extending."

However, no one is arguing for the complete removal of the copyright laws. Just the ridiculously long life granted by these laws … 70+ years after the death of the author. That is definitely too long if you are more concerned about a more global perspective of our culture. I guess that is why I publish to the web in the first place … I feel like I am adding to our collective culture.

Let see how the Eldred v. Ashcroft case works out. This case is attempting to overthrow the latest extension to the copyright act, Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA) … often called the Mickey Mouse Protection Act. I just hope we can get rid of this DMCA as well.