Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig (short story to read .TXT) 📕

3. See Danit Lidor, "Artists Just Wanna Be Free," Wired, 7 July 2003, available at link #40. For an overview of the exhibition, see link #41.

4. See Joseph Menn, "Universal, EMI Sue Napster Investor," Los Angeles Times, 23 April 2003. For a parallel argument about the effects on innovation in the distribution of music, see Janelle Brown, "The Music Revolution Will Not Be Digitized," Salon.com, 1 June 2001, available at link #42. See also Jon Healey, "Online Music Services Besieged," Los Angeles Times, 28 May 2001.

5. Rafe Needleman, "Driving in Cars with MP3s," Business 2.0, 16 June 2003, available at link #43. I am grateful to Dr. Mohammad Al-Ubaydli for this example.

6. "Copyright and Digital Media in a Post-Napster World," GartnerG2 and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School (2003), 33-35, available at link #44.

7. GartnerG2, 26-27.

8. See David McGuire, "Tech Execs Square Off Over Piracy," Newsbytes, 28 February 2002 (Entertainment).

9. Jessica Litman, Digital Copyright (Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 2001).

10. The only circuit court exception is found in Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) v. Diamond Multimedia Systems, 180 F. 3d 1072 (9th Cir. 1999). There the court of appeals for the Ninth Circuit reasoned that makers of a portable MP3 player were not liable for contributory copyright infringement for a device that is unable to record or redistribute music (a device whose only copying function is to render portable a music file already stored on a user's hard drive).

At the district court level, the only exception is found in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd., 259 F. Supp. 2d 1029 (C.D. Cal., 2003), where the court found the link between the distributor and any given user's conduct too attenuated to make the distributor liable for contributory or vicarious infringement liability.

11. For example, in July 2002, Representative Howard Berman introduced the Peer-to-Peer Piracy Prevention Act (H.R. 5211), which would immunize copyright holders from liability for damage done to computers when the copyright holders use technology to stop copyright infringement. In August 2002, Representative Billy Tauzin introduced a bill to mandate that technologies capable of rebroadcasting digital copies of films broadcast on TV (i.e., computers) respect a "broadcast flag" that would disable copying of that content. And in March of the same year, Senator Fritz Hollings introduced the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act, which mandated copyright protection technology in all digital media devices. See GartnerG2, "Copyright and Digital Media in a Post-Napster World," 27 June 2003, 33-34, available at link #44.

12. Lessing, 239.

13. Ibid., 229.

14. This example was derived from fees set by the original Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel (CARP) proceedings, and is drawn from an example offered by Professor William Fisher. Conference Proceedings, iLaw (Stanford), 3 July 2003, on file with author. Professors Fisher and Zittrain submitted testimony in the CARP proceeding that was ultimately rejected. See Jonathan Zittrain, Digital Performance Right in Sound Recordings and Ephemeral Recordings, Docket No. 2000-9, CARP DTRA 1 and 2, available at link #45.

For an excellent analysis making a similar point, see Randal C. Picker, "Copyright as Entry Policy: The Case of Digital Distribution," Antitrust Bulletin (Summer/Fall 2002): 461: "This was not confusion, these are just old-fashioned entry barriers. Analog radio stations are protected from digital entrants, reducing entry in radio and diversity. Yes, this is done in the name of getting royalties to copyright holders, but, absent the play of powerful interests, that could have been done in a media-neutral way."

15. Mike Graziano and Lee Rainie, "The Music Downloading Deluge," Pew Internet and American Life Project (24 April 2001), available at link #46. The Pew Internet and American Life Project reported that 37 million Americans had downloaded music files from the Internet by early 2001.

16. Alex Pham, "The Labels Strike Back: N.Y. Girl Settles RIAA Case," Los Angeles Times, 10 September 2003, Business.

17. Jeffrey A. Miron and Jeffrey Zwiebel, "Alcohol Consumption During Prohibition," American Economic Review 81, no. 2 (1991): 242.

18. National Drug Control Policy: Hearing Before the House Government Reform Committee, 108th Cong., 1st sess. (5 March 2003) (statement of John P. Walters, director of National Drug Control Policy).

19. See James Andreoni, Brian Erard, and Jonathon Feinstein, "Tax Compliance," Journal of Economic Literature 36 (1998): 818 (survey of compliance literature).

20. See Frank Ahrens, "RIAA's Lawsuits Meet Surprised Targets; Single Mother in Calif., 12-Year-Old Girl in N.Y. Among Defendants," Washington Post, 10 September 2003, E1; Chris Cobbs, "Worried Parents Pull Plug on File 'Stealing'; With the Music Industry Cracking Down on File Swapping, Parents are Yanking Software from Home PCs to Avoid Being Sued," Orlando Sentinel Tribune, 30 August 2003, C1; Jefferson Graham, "Recording Industry Sues Parents," USA Today, 15 September 2003, 4D; John Schwartz, "She Says She's No Music Pirate. No Snoop Fan, Either," New York Times, 25 September 2003, C1; Margo Varadi, "Is Brianna a Criminal?" Toronto Star, 18 September 2003, P7.

21. See "Revealed: How RIAA Tracks Downloaders: Music Industry Discloses Some Methods Used," CNN.com, available at link #47.

22. See Jeff Adler, "Cambridge: On Campus, Pirates Are Not Penitent," Boston Globe, 18 May 2003, City Weekly, 1; Frank Ahrens, "Four Students Sued over Music Sites; Industry Group Targets File Sharing at Colleges," Washington Post, 4 April 2003, E1; Elizabeth Armstrong, "Students 'Rip, Mix, Burn' at Their Own Risk," Christian Science Monitor, 2 September 2003, 20; Robert Becker and Angela Rozas, "Music Pirate Hunt Turns to Loyola; Two Students Names Are Handed Over; Lawsuit Possible," Chicago Tribune, 16 July 2003, 1C; Beth Cox, "RIAA Trains Antipiracy Guns on Universities," Internet News, 30 January 2003, available at link #48; Benny Evangelista, "Download Warning 101: Freshman Orientation This Fall to Include Record Industry Warnings Against File Sharing," San Francisco Chronicle, 11 August 2003, E11; "Raid, Letters Are Weapons at Universities," USA Today, 26 September 2000, 3D.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: ELDRED

1. There's a parallel here with pornography that is a bit hard to describe, but it's a strong one. One phenomenon that the Internet created was a world of noncommercial pornographers--people who were distributing porn but were not making money directly or indirectly from that distribution. Such a class didn't exist before the Internet came into being because the costs of distributing porn were so high. Yet this new class of distributors got special attention in the Supreme Court, when the Court struck down the Communications Decency Act of 1996. It was partly because of the burden on noncommercial speakers that the statute was found to exceed Congress's power. The same point could have been made about noncommercial publishers after the advent of the Internet. The Eric Eldreds of the world before the Internet were extremely few. Yet one would think it at least as important to protect the Eldreds of the world as to protect noncommercial pornographers.

2. The full text is: "Sonny [Bono] wanted the term of copyright protection to last forever. I am informed by staff that such a change would violate the Constitution. I invite all of you to work with me to strengthen our copyright laws in all of the ways available to us. As you know, there is also Jack Valenti's proposal for a term to last forever less one day. Perhaps the Committee may look at that next Congress," 144 Cong. Rec. H9946, 9951-2 (October 7, 1998).

3. Associated Press, "Disney Lobbying for Copyright Extension No Mickey Mouse Effort; Congress OKs Bill Granting Creators 20 More Years," Chicago Tribune, 17 October 1998, 22.

4. See Nick Brown, "Fair Use No More?: Copyright in the Information Age," available at link #49.

5. Alan K. Ota, "Disney in Washington: The Mouse That Roars," Congressional Quarterly This Week, 8 August 1990, available at link #50.

6. United States v. Lopez, 514 U.S. 549, 564 (1995).

7. United States v. Morrison, 529 U.S. 598 (2000).

8. If it is a principle about enumerated powers, then the principle carries from one enumerated power to another. The animating point in the context of the Commerce Clause was that the interpretation offered by the government would allow the government unending power to regulate commerce--the limitation to interstate commerce notwithstanding. The same point is true in the context of the Copyright Clause. Here, too, the government's interpretation would allow the government unending power to regulate copyrights--the limitation to "limited times" notwithstanding.

9. Brief of the Nashville Songwriters Association, Eldred v. Ashcroft, 537 U.S. 186 (2003) (No. 01-618), n.10, available at link #51.

10. The figure of 2 percent is an extrapolation from the study by the Congressional Research Service, in light of the estimated renewal ranges. See Brief of Petitioners, Eldred v. Ashcroft, 7, available at link #52.

11. See David G. Savage, "High Court Scene of Showdown on Copyright Law," Los Angeles Times, 6 October 2002; David Streitfeld, "Classic Movies, Songs, Books at Stake; Supreme Court Hears Arguments Today on Striking Down Copyright Extension," Orlando Sentinel Tribune, 9 October 2002.

12. Brief of Hal Roach Studios and Michael Agee as Amicus Curiae Supporting the Petitoners, Eldred v. Ashcroft, 537 U.S. 186 (2003) (No. 01- 618), 12. See also Brief of Amicus Curiae filed on behalf of Petitioners by the Internet Archive, Eldred v. Ashcroft, available at link #53.

13. Jason Schultz, "The Myth of the 1976 Copyright 'Chaos' Theory," 20 December 2002, available at link #54.

14. Brief of Amici Dr. Seuss Enterprise et al., Eldred v. Ashcroft, 537 U.S. 186 (2003) (No. 01-618), 19.

15. Dinitia Smith, "Immortal Words, Immortal Royalties? Even Mickey Mouse Joins the Fray," New York Times, 28 March 1998, B7.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: ELDRED II

1. Until the 1908 Berlin Act of the Berne Convention, national copyright legislation sometimes made protection depend upon compliance with formalities such as registration, deposit, and affixation of notice of the author's claim of copyright. However, starting with the 1908 act, every text of the Convention has provided that "the enjoyment and the exercise" of rights guaranteed by the Convention "shall not be subject to any formality." The prohibition against formalities is presently embodied in Article 5(2) of the Paris Text of the Berne Convention. Many countries continue to impose some form of deposit or registration requirement, albeit not as a condition of copyright. French law, for example, requires the deposit of copies of works in national repositories, principally the National Museum. Copies of books published in the United Kingdom must be deposited in the British Library. The German Copyright Act provides for a Registrar of Authors where the author's true name can be filed in the case of anonymous or pseudonymous works. Paul Goldstein, International Intellectual Property Law, Cases and Materials (New York: Foundation Press, 2001), 153-54.

CONCLUSION

1. Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, "Final Report: Integrating Intellectual Property Rights and Development Policy" (London, 2002), available at link #55. According to a World Health Organization press release issued 9 July 2002, only 230,000 of the 6 million who need drugs in the developing world receive them--and half of them are in Brazil.

2. See Peter Drahos with John Braithwaite, Information Feudalism: Who Owns the Knowledge Economy? (New York: The New Press, 2003), 37.

3. International Intellectual Property Institute (IIPI), Patent Protection and Access to HIV/AIDS Pharmaceuticals in Sub-Saharan Africa, a Report Prepared for the World Intellectual Property Organization (Washington, D.C., 2000), 14, available at link #56. For a firsthand account of the struggle over South Africa, see Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy,