There is one consistent flaw inherent to most anti-copyright agendas. Because so many contemporary theories and attitudes tilting against copyright are largely predicated on the introduction of digital technologies, a false dichotomy persists between access and authorship. Since the days of NAPSTER, authors have endured a litany of techsplaining on the (not quite true) theme that the cost of access ...

On April 16, Senator Udall (NM) wrote a letter asking the U.S. Copyright Office to provide Congress with guidance on the role of libraries and the potential need to expand (within the law) digital lending during national emergencies. More specifically, the senator asked the Office to comment on the National Emergency Library (NEL) launched by the Internet Archive (IA) on ...

When I borrow a sentiment from Ayn Rand, you can bet I gave the matter some serious thought. But looting is the one word that comes to mind in response to last week’s move by the Internet Archive to launch what they call the National Emergency Library. Believing the coronavirus pandemic provides both a moral and legal foundation for its decision, IA ...

Should auld creative works be forgot,And never brought to mind? There may be any number of reasons to feel anxious about the coming year, but at least we can take comfort in the fact that the song “Yes! We Have No Bananas” will be entering the public domain.  Sure, this may seem like clinging to a bit of floating timber ...

Photo by fotoduki Recently, a tweet caught my eye on the #copyright thread—something about the late Congressman Sonny Bono and a new collection at the Internet Archive, which is the vast digital library founded by technologist and entrepreneur Brewster Kahle.  The tweet linked to a blog post by Kahle announcing that a collection of copyrighted works published between 1923 and 1941 ...

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