Free culture

The speaker at the Scholars' Convocation on April 21, 2011, will be Jane C. Ginsburg of Columbia Law School, an expert on copyright law. Her talk is entitled “The author's place in the future of copyright.” Here's her summary:

Three hundred years ago, the 1710 British Statute of Anne made authors the owners of an intangible property right in their works. Vesting copyright in authors -- rather than exploiters -- was an innovation in England in the 18th century. It made authorship the functional and moral center of the system. But all too often in fact, authors then and now neither control nor derive substantial benefits from their work. Two encroachments, one long-standing, the other a product of the digital era, cramp the author's place in copyright today. First, most authors lack bargaining power; the real economic actors in the copyright system have long been the publishers and other exploiters to whom authors cede their rights. These actors may advance the figure of the author for the moral lustre it lends their appeals to lawmakers, but then may promptly despoil the creators of whatever increased protections they may have garnered. Second, the advent of new technologies of creation and dissemination of works of authorship not only challenges traditional revenue models, but also calls into question whatever artistic control the author may retain over her work. I will examine both prongs of the pincers, and then will suggest some reasons for optimism for the future.

She has expressed an interest in meeting with groups of students who are interested in discussing copyright issues, perhaps between 8 and 10 in the morning of April 21 or between 1:30 and 4 in the afternoon.

It struck me that the “free culture” group of the Free Network Movement might be interested in talking with her. I've suggested Marcus as someone who might be willing to arrange a meeting time with the Convocation organizers who are putting together Ms. Ginsburg's schedule.

--John David Stone 16:01, 9 February 2011 (CST)