SPARC Open Access Newsletter issue #109
by PETER SUBER
SPARC Open Access Newsletter, publication date: 2 May 2007
"There is a rising awareness of intellectual property issues in the general public, rising impatience with unbalanced copyright laws, and rising support for remedies by governments (legislation) and individuals (CC licenses). Copyright laws are still grotesquely unbalanced, and powerful corporations who benefit from the imbalance are fighting to insure that the laws are not revised in the right direction any time soon. But in most countries an aroused public is ready to fight to insure that they are not revised in the wrong direction either, something we haven't seen in the entire history of intellectual property law.
However, this only guarantees that the content industry will have a fight, not that users and consumers will win. Just last week (April 25) we lost the first-reading vote in the EU parliament on the Second Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (IPRED2). But at least there was significant opposition and the bill has not yet been adopted.
...
Some lazy students believe that if something is not free online, then it's not worth reading. This has never been true. However, it's gradually becoming true and those who want it to become true can accelerate the process. Those who want to live in a world where all peer-reviewed journal literature is free online are themselves growing in numbers and will soon have the power in universities, libraries, learned societies, publishers, funding agencies, and governments to bring it about. "
1 comment:
Hi!
I would like ask one thing related to the public/industry awareness of the fair copyright laws and their counterparts - the mind boggling (my opinion...) outrageous copyright laws.
Fair laws: Those which garantee the author/musician should be payed for every book/music sold.
Mind boggling laws: those (specific to the music industry) that say : You are a business owner + you play music in your offices or plant => then you must pay the music industry a fee (a chunk of your company earnings).
It doesn't matter whether you manufacture razor blades,software or own a health clinic.
They - music industry - don't care whether the music you play actually helps you sell more or not. They just want a piece of your earnings.
And no, I'm not talking about radio stations, because in that business there is a real possibility of someone making illegal copies by using the radio tape recorder, for instance.
I'm talking businesses where such problem doesn't exist! Yet, they still have to pay fees.
So I have 2 questions :
-How come no one is fighting these laws?
-Why haven't the other industries followed the music industry?
Like i said before the principle is: You are a profit driven company + you play music to improve the working environment thus increasing productivity or whatever => then you must pay a fee.
We can apply this same principle to almost everything that is for sale.
I bought a book recently because I needed to improve my professionals skills. It really payed off. I got a promotion and I'm helped my company increase its profit margins.
How come I don't have to pay a fee to the book author?
I could apply the same principle to software.
Any comments?
J.C.
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