[WEB4LIB] Computers in Libraries and the death of copyright

[Walt_Crawford at notes.rlg.org]

Gary Masters sez...

>Roy Tennant said exactly what I have been saying in other arenas
"Copyright
>is dead."  Which is that what ever can be reduced to a computer file that
>can be sent to others on the Internet will have no protection.  It may be
>possible with some superhuman effort to make it illegal, but the process
>will cost more than it is worth.  His presentation was excellent.  There
was
>a lawyer on the program, but he was clearly playing defense.  As he
should.
>The sooner people realize that it is a new world, the sooner we can devise
a
>system that will work.

I held off on a heated response in the hopes that Roy Tennant (one of my
Library Heroes) had been misinterpreted. Then I looked at Roy's PowerPoint
presentation. Oops: there's the slide.

I'm going to sound awfully old-testamentish here, so those who truly
believe that all ethics are situational should simply write me off as an
incorrigible ethicist and go on to the next posting, but:

Copyright is a matter of law and ethics, and only secondarily of
enforcement. What I see from Gary M. and Roy T. (sigh) is a reversal--a
universal equivalent of the nasty little driver's saying "If there are no
cops, there is no speed limit." In other words: if you can't _prevent_ me
from taking intellectual property without compensation, then it's jus' fine
for me and anyone else to do that.

Most of us (outside Manhattan) have door locks that can be thwarted within
15 seconds. I guess we're saying that it's reasonable for anyone to steal
our stuff: after all, it can't be universally prevented. Heck, most murders
are never solved: I guess "Murder is OK." And if I drop my wallet with $200
inside, I should _expect_ you to take the money and the credit cards:
there's nothing to prevent it. For that matter, I've been in a monogamous,
faithful relationship (marriage, in this case) for more than 23 years, even
though there's clearly no plausible chance that I'd be arrested for
adultery. What could I be thinking?

Since when did ethics and law equal enforceability? Roy, what the heck are
you really saying here? That we who write for money (I suspect LJ pays you
for your columns) are living in a dream world, and should move to the Brave
New World where all intellectual work is free for the taking?

Sorry. I don't buy it. There will always be pirates; there always have
been. Audio CDs have essentially no anti-piracy provisions--but most people
don't habitually rip off audio CDs--because it's wrong, not simply because
it's (no longer) inconvenient. What I'm seeing here is a grotesque paradigm
shift:

"If it's easy, it's both legal and moral. "

Sorry. I don't buy it, and probably never will. And I find it offensive as
a paradigm for library operations.

(Yes, an expanded version of this will probably turn up in _Cites &
Insights_, probably not until the May edition. But then, this troglodyte
set of values has been evident in 20 years of my writing...)

Walt Crawford
text-only: br.wcc at rlg.org
fancy: wcc at notes.rlg.org
Home page: http://walt.crawford.home.att.net