The problem with Copyright
I found a link to a paper written by John Tehranian [PDF] about the problem with Copyright on the Schneier on Security blog which I found interesting. As I read through the comments posted in reply to the blog post, I was wondering why no-one had mentioned Richard Stallman or quoted any of his copyleft dogma, until finally I found this post…
The problem with copyright, as articulated by Richard Stallman, is, it used to be a restriction on publishers by authors. Essentially an industrial regulation. Now, it functions as a restriction on the behavior of ordinary citizens by publishing companies.
When it was more like an industrial regulation, the argument went, “this is what you have to accept if you want to get into the book-publishing business”. Now, copyright is an intrusion on everyday activities that regular citizens have to accept if they want to do something as simple as _read_.
Posted by: Paul Siro at November 26, 2007 03:59 PM
