2007 10
Used Books In Paris…And Copyright
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in General with No Comments
This week I spend time hanging out with Joichi Ito who, among other things, Chairs Creative Commons. Joi, who is a good friend and also the lead fonero of FON Japan, alerted me to the fact that copyright owners keep trying to extend the rights of their licenses into areas that historically were out of bounds.
I comment on the subject in this video shot in Paris at a used book stand .
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Timo Heuer on February 11, 2007 ·
Why don’t you tell these people it’s not ok to sell CDs?? Maybe they know, maybe not ;-).
Elliott on February 11, 2007 ·
The analogy is not correct. If you have a CD or DVD, you are allowed to give or sell it to another person. However, you are not allowed to make copies of it. Similarly, with books and other copyrighted paper products [e.g., magazines] you are allowed to give or sell it to another person, BUT, as with CDs or DVDs, you are not allowed to make copies and sell them. Thus, a book may be shared with your frieds, but only one person is using it at a time. With a movie DVD, you can share it with a friend, but only one person is using it at a time.
The problem with copyrights is that they have been extended in time far beyond the lifetime of the creator in contrast to other intellectual property such as patents, which expire 20 years from the time of the patent application even if the patent office takes an inordinate amount of time to approve the application and issue a patent.
Antoin O Lachtnain on February 11, 2007 ·
The thing about books is that they aren’t as easily copied as digital music files are. (Although in some countries, photocopying books is commonplace. It’s the ease of copying which brings up all these issues and means that the old rules don’t work well anymore.
Zach Skyles Owens on February 13, 2007 ·
This certainly is a difficult situation and I don’t have the answer.
I think the difference between sharing a book with a friend and providing a DVD for free download is the ability that technology has allowed us to massively distribute content. One person could buy a CD, movie or book and put it online and no one else in the world would have to buy it again.
I think this is similar to affect that technology has had on war and the ability to inflict massive casualties. Although war has always been a horrible thing in the past 50 years it has evolved into something unimaginable.
Antoin O Lachtnain on February 13, 2007 ·
On the other hand it has the potential to make the music business far more profitable, at least for some players. At the moment, record companies are basically struggling to survive in the plastic manufacturing and distribution game. They get ripped off by the retailers who govern access to the market. The Internet has the potential to fix all that.
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killy-the-frog on February 11, 2007 ·
You can buy a CD and lent your CD, it is allowed (you can also sell it).
As you can buy a book and lent your book (you can also sell it as in your movie).
But you can not buy a CD and make a copy, give the copy and keep the original for you.
As you can not buy a book, make a copy of the book, give the copy and keep the original.
It is the same.
In France you can even make officially a copy of your DVD, in case the DVD you bought is destroyed.