Category: Copyright

Connecting some dots on owning media

Three stories caught my eye today.  At first glance, they seem completely unrelated–but there are underlying (undefined?) characteristics about the way we interact with our media that tie them together. Here are the short versions

Laptop searches at the border: No reason? No problem: The 9th Circuit rules that laptops can be searched at the border without cause.

Court Ruling Denies EMI Access to Millions of Personal MP3 Files: An online storage service (ok, one that promotes its ability to store-but-not-share music) wins against EMI, who wanted access users’ music files.

Defunct MSN Music has a DRM controversy on its hands: Microsoft switches off computers which let MSN Music customers move music files they paid for to another machine.

It seems to me that, when we buy a piece of media (be it a book, CD, or digital file) it:

  1. Makes a statement about who we are: Back to the CDs or DVDs on a shelf idea of being able to tell how much you share with another.  I am mostly thinking of this as a public act, but it could be a more private identity assertion.
  2. Is closely tied to our individual intellectual or artistic development and freedom: The things we read, watch, and hear have an effect on us yet we have a right to travel our own path in choosing media. S. R. Ranganathan’s five laws of library science fit well here, as well as librarian’s ideals on the privacy of patron information.

These two characteristics, I believe, drive certain expectations that we have about the media we buy:

  1. First, that there is an element of permanence or ownership to media we own. Asserting one’s identity and claiming a work as a piece of their intellectual history can’t be taken away, and many might say the same should go for owned media that sparked it.
  2. Second, control over privacy is expected because, just as we wouldn’t want anyone to see what goes on inside our heads, we might also not want others to know about the media that impacts what goes on in there.
  3. Finally but on a related note, control over where a work resides, or its format can also be thought of as personal. The order of books on a shelf, or the privacy of files locked in a network drive might be another aspect of a right to control one’s intellectual or artistic domain.

It just seems like there is “something” here we haven’t put our finger on in law or theory. Perhaps that explains what, looking back, all of this again feels random to me. Any ideas?

From the education department

A number of recent stories about higher ed regarding copying and technology to share:

From the copyright department: Librarians React to Lawsuit Against Georgia State U

Also from the copyright department: Universities’ Intellectual Property Stance Criticized

From the plagiarism-not-copyright department: Journals May Soon Use Antiplagiarism Software on Their Authors

Finally, from the wireless in the classroom department: Hey, You! Pay Attention!

Before they grow too stale…

Three recent copyright stories of note:

“Copyright Investigators”

Ars points out the increased scrutiny of “the role that MediaSentry plays in the RIAA’s legal campaign and whether the company should be licensed as a private investigator.” In one case, the RIAA argues that MediaSentury is actually a “copyright investigator,” and thus not subject to laws governing private investigators.

Private enforcement of copyright law has a history in the English Stationers’ Company.

During the Tudor and Stuart periods, the Stationers were legally empowered to seize “offending books” that violated the standards of content set by the Church and State; its officers could bring “offenders” before ecclesiastical authorities, including the Bishop of London and Archbishop of Canterbury.

Wikipedia isn’t the best source for the story of the Stationers. I highly recommend Patterson’s Copyright in Historical Perspective for a convincing argument of the Stationers’ role in copyright history. Private enforcement of the law isn’t something we do much of in the U.S. (that I’m aware of), so we need to use history as a guide wherever appropriate.