[WEB4LIB] Re: Computers in Libraries and the death of copyright

[Dan Marmion]

I didn't attend the conference, but I have looked a Roy's slides.  My take
was a bit different from Walt's, in that I thought Roy was simply saying
there was no way to enforce copyright, not that it's okay to take someone's
intellectual property.  Roy, am I representing you correctly?

Dan Marmion

Walt_Crawford at notes.rlg.org wrote:
> 
> 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

-- 
Daniel Keith Marmion           email: dmarmion at nd.edu
Associate Director for Information Systems and Access
University of Notre Dame Libraries  http://lib.nd.edu
221 Hesburgh Library, Notre Dame, Indiana  46556-5629
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