[Web4lib] [lita-l] Paramecium Don't Request Permission > Copyright IsObstructing Evolution

[Carson Block]

Folks,

I don't know what took me so long to join the LITA list (perhaps too busy in my own little world?) but the conversations I've seen since joining a few weeks ago have been refreshing.  I mistakenly thought I was the only one thinking about some of this stuff and am very gratified to see so many smart people debating these topics!  I'm learning a lot and am grateful.

For the past several years I've been talking with library managers about how the combination of an explosion in electronic communication, IP and copyright laws have hobbled us as a people, and that as information institutions in a democratic society we have a role in challenging laws that are bad, especially if we have some special insight to the topic.   

>From the dawn of time we have come from an oral tradition  -- passing on stories, songs, music, drawings (and some of that is art, too :0) from one person to another - with each step creating a derivative work from what we were given or found before.  Since the beginning to *time.*  In the last several years, laws around Intellectual Property and Copyright have changed that natural flow a great deal, creating man-made dams that may damn us all -- I don't think some of the results will serve any of us well, including the big Copyright and IP holders, in the long-term.  

Please don't get me wrong - creators need to be paid for their works (artistic motivation aside, everyone needs to eat) and in the information age, information does indeed have a cash value.  But there must be a way for folks to be paid and not stem the free flow of information that has made us who we are today. It's possible.   Famously, even Disney used fairly tales and created some excellent derivative works -- ones definitely worth paying for.  

Okay - off my high horse.  A pile o' Monday morning work awaits!

Carson
-- 

Carson Block
IT Director
Poudre River Public Library District
201 Peterson Street
Fort Collins, CO 80524-2990
ph: (970) 221-6662
fax: (970) 221-6398
http://poudrelibraries.org/
 
Having trouble getting mail through to me? Please visit this web address: http://fcgov.com/antispam 


>>> On 7/11/2010 at 5:52 PM, Gerry McKiernan <gerrymckiernan at live.com> wrote:

> Friends/ 
>  
> IMHO > CopyRight Is Not Only Obstructing Human Cultural Development  > 
>  
> But >>>Human Biological Evolution >>>
>  
> We Are Mobile Creatures > According To Some > Originating From Single Cell 
> Entities [But Enough About Rush and Glenn And Sarah [:-)]
>  
> IMO > Biological Progression [And I Mean That In A Positive Way [:->] Is 
> Dependent On Free/Open Interaction > Mental ; Mobile; Etc.  > 
>  
> Your Thoughts ? >>>
>  
> /Gerry 
>  
> Gerry McKiernan
> Associate Professor
> Science and Technology Librarian
> Iowa State University Library
> Ames IA 50011
>  
> Follow Me On Twitter > http://twitter.com/GMcKBlogs 
>  
>>>> "The Future Is Mobile" >>> 		 	   		  
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