Category: Mass Communication Law

Dishes with Yochai

I took a great suggestion this morning and did my dishes while watching Yochai Benkler’s TED talk on Open-source economics. He finished his talk with a point that I’ve brought up before–the new importance of communication law to everyone on the Internet. He says (around the 17 min mark):

So, next time you open the paper and you see an intellectual property decision, a telecoms decison, it’s not about something small and technical. It is about the future of the freedom to be as social beings with each other and the way information, knowledge, and culture will be produced. Because, it is in this context that we see a battle over how easy or hard it will be for the industrial information economy to simply go on as it goes, or for the new model of production to begin to develop along side that industrial model — [to] change the way that we begin to see the world, and report what it is that we see.

Guess it’s time to take another look at the Wealth of Networks (or, if you prefer, a free copy).

Briefly…

New Orphaned Works Act would limit copyright liability (Ars)
Without passing any kind of judgment on our copyright structure, we should realize that “orphan works” wouldn’t be a problem in earlier versions of the law. Shorter terms and registration/renewal requirements would solve this in the clearest possible way.

State Secrets (New Yorker)
I haven’t read the whole thing yet, but I understand it’s a worthwhile overview of a wiretapping case.

Your virginity for Net neutrality (MSNBC)
Um, I’ll let this speak for itself.

The Music Industry’s Extortion Scheme (Slate)
$5 a month conveniently added to your Internet bill for all the music you could want. Aside from the slippery slope to fees for other media, this would literally make music worthless. Where’s the identity in ownership for music you didn’t even have to take time to consider what you want?

Georgia only occasionally on my mind (Patry)
A great catch on the issue of sovereign immunity in the Georgia State decision. Who’s liable in this case? The instructors?

Here, Warren and Cobb focus on the fact that their allegedly infringing activities were done in the scope of their employment. As discussed above, however, the test is not whether the acts were done in the course of an employee’s official duties but whether a judgment against the employee would in fact operate against the state.

Here’s an interesting read on sovereign immunity.

Legal limits on hobbies-homebuilt Macs?

The week of weird connections continues…

Macworld talks about the homebuilt Mac hobby community. One thing stuck out for me:

One approach—which appears to be the approach Apple’s taken thus far—is to simply ignore these hobbyist hackers. Since there’s no real measurable impact on Apple, fighting the hobbyists may be more trouble than it’s worth.

The article then goes on to describe some of the benefits for Apple.

One of the issues I’m hoping to address in my dissertation is the role that the law plays in people’s hobbies (specifically, copyright and groups like mash-up artists).  The quote above captures a sentiment that is often felt by hobbyists, but to the contrary, many media companies feel the impact is not negligible and that it is worth the trouble. There are so many fascinating connections here: between the law against the hobby, the market for the machines protected by the law, and the desire to express a connection to the party that could change their mind and sue you. I never would have thought of any of this in the context of hardware.

Sen. Kerry: I Need Your Feedback on Net Neutrality

Sen. Kerry is looking for feedback (edit: he’s only reading comments over at Save the Internet, please!) on the issue of Internet Neutrality. Here’s the comment I left:

I think historical analogies might be the best way to understand why regulation is needed to keep what we understand to be the status quo. We have such a remarkable history of neutrality in our networks, and must continue to foster this blind freedom of communication.

– The early postal system was a large motivating factor in the creation of national roadways, created physical locations where people would meet and discuss issues of the day, and was a source of pride for early Americans.
– Libraries promote values of providing materials of all kinds to patrons, regardless of how the patron looks or what the content of the materials might be.
– The interstate system is open so that WalMart, Mom n’ Pop’s freight, and the public as a whole benefit from the system.
– Finally, in the early telephone monopoly, regulation drove network development and spread out the costs of doing so.

The questions to ask are: Why should the Internet be different? Why isn’t our Internet infrastructure something that we are proud of?