The following pieces are strong resources for investigating larger issues–like intellectual property theory, loss of public domain, and business model development–that electronic publishing faces. They have been arranged by author.
“The Changing Meaning of `Unauthorized Access’” by Julie Cohen (a recorded lecture)
- My Thoughts: Cohen reviews types of access under the DMCA “frameworks” of “innovation, competition…and consumer protection,” as well as identifies inconsistencies in protections and the limitations of the current law structure and expresses concern that we continually lose access to information about the network structures we “inhabit,” especially when legal and academic discourse about improving access seems to go nowhere. I appreciate her recognition of the “moral panic” created by the regulation of access, as well as the creation of “access as commodity” thinking that continually drives the Darknet. Cohen’s suggested solutions–transparency and allowances for community involvement in standards-setting–sit well with me. She she doesn’t seek to vilify either user or governor (governmental or otherwise) and instead provides possibilities for the growth of a symbiosis between all interested parties–private, business, and governmental.
Free Culture (2004) by Lawrence Lessig
“…as we’ll see more clearly in the chapters below, the law’s role is less and less to support creativity, and more and more to protect certain industries against competition. Just at the time digital technology could unleash an extraordinary range of commercial and noncommercial creativity, the law burdens this creativity with insanely complex and vague rules and with the threat of obscenely severe penalties. We may be seeing, as Richard Florida writes, the “Rise of the Creative Class.”[4] Unfortunately, we are also seeing an extraordinary rise of regulation of this creative class.
- My Thoughts: A great book to get you up in arms about the Copyright Act of 1976, the Sony Bono Copyright Extension Act of 1998, and our beloved DMCA. Certainly to be read prior to Remix (below).
Remix (2008) by Lawrence Lessig
- My Thoughts:
