The Patry Copyright Blog: Non-profit, non-partisan education in copyright
Inspired by a response by the director of the Copyright Alliance to a previous post, Patry takes on an issue I’m hoping to take on in my own research: how do we educate the public about copyright.
Patry argues that the Alliance practices “‘education’ of a distinct type; equating copyright education overwhelmingly with stopping file sharing,” rather than a “balanced viewpoint.” This type of “education” happens on both sides of the debate (example: the Association of Research Libraries produces material which they hope will “encourage the campus community to confidently and assertively exercise their rights.”)
The difficulty here is that copyright has developed to be so complex and indeteriminate that I would argue any effort at copyright education (short of quoting the law) will end up being political. The result of this is when the law is put into action by creators and users of copyrighted works, they have their choice of interpretation. Additionally, educational materials are easy to ignore.
In my opinion, a better approach than education about copyright is to involve the public more in the debate over pending copyright reform. Giving people the feeling that their voice has been heard increases the chance that they will buy in to the resulting law. I believe promoting compliance in this way is a much cheaper and (eventually) less political way to go.