If The Only Way A Library Can

Notwithstanding The Fact That The Most Innovative And Progressive Space We've Seen - The Internet - Has Been The Place Where Intellectual Property Has Been Least Respected. You Know, Facts Don't Get In The Way Of This Ideology.

We Are A Cut-and-paste Culture. The Aim Of The Protectionists Is To Argue That A Cut-and-paste Culture Is Criminal. Well, It's Only Criminal If There's Nothing Out There That You Can Freely Cut And Paste. If We Increasingly Mark Material As Available For These Non-commercial Uses, Then People Will Have The Opportunity To See Its Importance.

I Think The Reality Is That Copyright Law Has For A Very Long Time Been A Tiny Little Part Of American Jurisprudence, Far Removed From Traditional First Amendment Jurisprudence, And That Made Sense Before The Internet. Now There Is An Unavoidable Link Between First Amendment Interests And The Scope Of Copyright Law. The Legal System Is Recognizing For The First Time The Extraordinary Expanse Of Copyright Regulation And Its Regulation Of Ordinary Free-speech Activities.

And With A Practice Of Writing Comes A Certain Important Integrity. A Culture Filled With Bloggers Thinks Differently About Politics Or Public Affairs, If Only Because More Have Been Forced Through The Discipline Of Showing In Writing Why A Leads To B.

Copyright Law Has Got To Give Up Its Obsession With 'the Copy.' The Law Should Not Regulate 'copies' Or 'modern Reproductions' On Their Own. It Should Instead Regulate Uses--like Public Distributions Of Copies Of Copyrighted Work--that Connect Directly To The Economic Incentive Copyright Law Was Intended To Foster.