The Digital Age: Copyright vs. Copyleft Sarah Thayer Trinity College

Sarah.Thayer@trincoll.edu April 28, 2008

Slide: 2 Apr 28,2008

•  My paper deals with the issues involved in

current copyright laws

•  This is an important topic in FOSS because of

the various kinds of licenses, rights, and current

disputes it is involved in

•  Thesis: Copyright laws should only apply to

printed media; Copyleft/Open Source to digital

media and programs

Introduction

Slide: 3 Apr 28,2008

Copyright

•  Originally designed to foster culture growth and learning

•  Today, serving as a means to pay owners of works and leave the public with all sorts of rules to follow

•  Restrictive

Slide: 4 Apr 28,2008

Digital Rights Management

•  System that monitors and prices “each subsequent use of a digital file that contains media content or software” (Einhorn, 47).

•  Prevents infringement before it happens •  No room for exceptions-copyright “fair use”

exception •  Fees, rules programmed into devices (such as

iPods) •  Best for owners or users?

Slide: 5 Apr 28,2008

Open Source

•  Free distribution of source code, allowance of derived works (provided same rights apply)

•  Money not primary motivation-volunteers •  NASA ClickWorkers •  SETI@home •  Folding@home

•  Increases incentive to produce, leads to higher programming standards, personal enjoyment

•  Freedom of users

Slide: 6 Apr 28,2008

Richard Stallman and GNU

•  Wanted more freedom for users •  GNU: “to make cooperation possible once

again by removing the obstacles to cooperation imposed by the owners of proprietary software”

•  GNU/Linux: est. over 10 million users •  Copyleft:”uses copyright law, but flips it

over…instead of a means of privatizing software, it becomes a means of keeping software free” (GNU.org)

Slide: 7 Apr 28,2008

Conclusions

• Copyright •  Intended for printed works •  Restrictive •  DRM treats citizens as potential criminals

• Open Source/Copyleft •  Encourages learning/creation of culture •  Freedom of users •  Necessary in modern age

• Copyleft: better for digital age and programming than current copyright laws

Slide: 8 Apr 28,2008

Selected References •  Einhorn, Michael A. Media, Technology and Copyright. Cheltenham, UK:

Edward Elgar Publishing, 2004. •  Gillespie, Tarleton. Wired Shut. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2007. •  GNU Operating System. http://www.gnu.org/. Free Software Foundation.

2008. •  Kennedy, Dennis. A Primer on Open Source Licensing Legal Issues:

Copyright, Copyleft, and Copyfuture. www.denniskennedy.com/opensourcedmk.pdf. 2001.

•  Tallmo, Karl-Erik. The History of Copyright: A Critical Overview With Source Texts in Five Languages (forthcoming). Nisus Publishing. http://copyrighthistory.com/anne.html

•  U.S. Copyright Office. http://www.copyright.gov. Accessed 21 April 2008. Site revised 17 April 2008. http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html.

Questions?

Slide: 9 Apr 28,2008