[WEB4LIB] Re: Jack Valenti: Copyright and creativity

[Charles P. Hobbs]

"Gimon, Charles A" wrote:

> An alternative viewpoint that I've found to be interesting reading:
> "Against Intellectual Property", by Brian Martin, at
>
> http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/pubs/95psa.html

Interesting, if somewhat predictable article (governments and corporations
do bad things, yada yada).

Although the author calls for the elimination of intellectual property, even he
admits that doing so is no panacea ("... a solution to the link between
information and inequality"). As a side note, you might want to look at some of
his other
articles (available at http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/pubs/) just to see

where he's coming from...

I'm not quite sure where all this leaves me. I feel the frustration of paying
for
some expensive journal subscriptions, or whatever as well. But I also know that
there is a chain of production that goes into these products, and that it must
be paid for somehow. How much is too much? Do the record companies,
book publishers, etc. make "too much"? What is "fair"?

On the other hand, the genie is out of the bottle with the MP3's. I think the
record companies' quest for an "unhackable" format for music distribution is
futile--all that is really needed to "de-protect" any music file format is a
short
cord connecting the input and output of the sound card. Eventually, the music
companies will realize that, and acquiese to some more rational licensing
scheme.
Don't look for that to happen anytime soon, though.

--
Charles P. Hobbs
King Drew Health Science Library
http://www.cdrewu.edu/kdhsl