Free Government - Democracy in Your Hands.

Author	Post
deceitfulsteve	#1 Jul 11, 2008 01:12am Some people are saying this bill could be bad for open source software. Thoughts? Or know of a good commentary on the bill?
brandonburt	#2 Jul 11, 2008 06:25am This bill does not solve the problem people think it does. Its name is purposefully misleading. Yes, there is a serious problem with copyright law—it limits fair use and gives unfair advantage to corporate interests at the expense of artists, software designers, authors and musicians. However, this bill does not solve that problem. All it does is repeal the 1978 law which made copyright an “opt-out” rather than an “opt-in” system. This will cause problems for artists, software designers, authors and musicians. Creative people will be required to submit vital stats to the government in order to copyright their material. If copyright is genuinely infringed, a creator’s options for seeking compensation are severely curtailed. Yes, copyright reform is necessary. But this bill does nothing to relieve the concerns we all have. This particular bill is a corporate trick, and it should be rejected. See Lawrence Lessig’s Little Orphan Artworks for a good discussion of this issue.
peterdarkness Texas	#3 Jul 11, 2008 10:44am After reading this bill, it does seem like it would make it much more difficult for artists, authors, and etc. Its much easier just to put your name\company\etc. in the work than to go through the process this bill requires of an artist to get a copyright. Being protected by copyright without having to sign up for something is the way it should be.
jshumaker Westborough, MA	#4 Jul 11, 2008 02:35pm I definitely prefer Lawrence Lessig’s suggestion in that article to model it more along the lines of patents with an automatic protection for a certain period, and registration for a longer period. The system described by this bill isn’t good.
christopherp	#5 Sep 05, 2008 02:37pm As an artist, I find this bill offensive. It basically has stripped away my rights to my property and hands it off to the first billionaire it sees. If this were made into a law I can see artist across America either constantly fighting for their art or not producing any at all. And a world without art is not one I would like to participate in.

Author

Post

deceitfulsteve

#1 Jul 11, 2008 01:12am

Some people are saying this bill could be bad for open source software. Thoughts? Or know of a good commentary on the bill?

brandonburt

#2 Jul 11, 2008 06:25am

This bill does not solve the problem people think it does. Its name is purposefully misleading.

Yes, there is a serious problem with copyright law—it limits fair use and gives unfair advantage to corporate interests at the expense of artists, software designers, authors and musicians.

However, this bill does not solve that problem. All it does is repeal the 1978 law which made copyright an “opt-out” rather than an “opt-in” system. This will cause problems for artists, software designers, authors and musicians.

Creative people will be required to submit vital stats to the government in order to copyright their material. If copyright is genuinely infringed, a creator’s options for seeking compensation are severely curtailed.

Yes, copyright reform is necessary. But this bill does nothing to relieve the concerns we all have. This particular bill is a corporate trick, and it should be rejected.

See Lawrence Lessig’s Little Orphan Artworks for a good discussion of this issue.

peterdarkness

Texas

#3 Jul 11, 2008 10:44am

After reading this bill, it does seem like it would make it much more difficult for artists, authors, and etc.

Its much easier just to put your name\company\etc. in the work than to go through the process this bill requires of an artist to get a copyright.

Being protected by copyright without having to sign up for something is the way it should be.

jshumaker

Westborough, MA

#4 Jul 11, 2008 02:35pm

I definitely prefer Lawrence Lessig’s suggestion in that article to model it more along the lines of patents with an automatic protection for a certain period, and registration for a longer period. The system described by this bill isn’t good.

christopherp

#5 Sep 05, 2008 02:37pm

As an artist, I find this bill offensive. It basically has stripped away my rights to my property and hands it off to the first billionaire it sees. If this were made into a law I can see artist across America either constantly fighting for their art or not producing any at all. And a world without art is not one I would like to participate in.