Presented By: Richard Stallman
Okay. We made it to SXSW, I'm super excited and very curious about this Richard Stallman character. My only pre-conception about Stallman came from SlashDot and I knew to take that with a severe helping of salt. I guess some people think Stallman is some kind of an extremist or something. I decided to keep an open mind and think more about the content of his presentation.
Since this was my first experience with a presentation at SXSW, I fired up the laptop and cranked out as many notes as I could. I later found that this was too distracting for me, so I stopped. Below are my first set of notes from this presentation. Edited after the fact so that they make more sense.
why the current laws in the US are not sufficient to what the original purpose of copyright laws were intended to do.
constitution - set a purpose (promote progress in the useful arts)
[limited time] - now we have perpetual copyright...
companies (they) pay congress to increase copyright by 20 years at a time...
sonny bono copyright extension (1998)
copyright currently ? (95 years - works made for hire)
2-step plan by publishers to take away our freedoms
step 1 - make new laws for the protection of digital copyright (DMCA) for things like e-books
step 2 - get everyone switched to the new format.
renting textbooks ( what about open source education resources??? )
can a group of teachers/educators put together something that would be better than what the publishers currently produce. then they can make it available to the world via the internet.
project in india? curriculum for 1-12th grade?
this is most interesting.
arrogant companies deserve to be punished ??? (applause??)
distinguish between types of works (copyright could be variable to the types of works)
books fall out of publication pretty quickly (18mos)
software copyright (** 3 years?) source code held in escrow and released... I'm not sure about this... it seems that code is built up over long periods of time and some of the biggest leaps can happen at the beginning of the cycle.
------- 3 TYPES OF WORKS -----
functional works - things you use. programs, references, recipes?
- these should be free
- why?
- because society has a large advantage from the output that individuals
create based on these types of works... and if someone makes a better version
- copyright of 3 years?
in software ( geeks are different ) they typically don't have much of a social life.
wiki-pedia? free encyclopidia ( now the largest in the world - 100,000+ entries)
free software manuals? again the geek factor.
represent the view works - essays, scientific papers, blogs
- to change is to misrepresent the original persons view.
- non-commercial verbatim copying
- makes copyright an industry regulation
astetic or artistic works -
- what about modification?
- folk process? shakespeare borrowed plotlines?
internet music sharing - legalize it for now.
publishers (music)
- treat musicians badly.
- treat customers badly.
- make lots of $$$.
- hype industrial complex
- share the music is a better way to get publicity for a band.
politically active?? ugh i'm to lazy, you don't want me...
public knowledge
www.digitalspeech.org
www.eff.org
yikes...
check out drugpolicy.org
son of patriot ( suspect/demand dna sample? what's this? )
exiled? bad stuff... aclu.org
www.stallman.org
www.gnu.org
8:56 PM 3/7/2003
questions and answers
intellectual property is a propoganda term...
treat everything as "property" -- why?
catch all for legal monopolies (copyright, trademark, patents, trade secrets)