Joho the Blog
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April 04, 2005
Clay tells BoingBoing about how he was thwarted from making a copy of a video of him given to him by a friend. As always, he brings matters to a very sharp point : "This is because copyright laws do not exist to defend the moral rights of copyright holders — they exist to help enforce artificial scarcity." (I'd put it slightly differently, albeit less pithilly: When copyright enforcement is built into machinery, it favors artificial scarcity over fair use and over the rights of copyholders.) [Technorati tags: shirky copyright] Posted
by D. Weinberger at April 4, 2005 12:15 PM
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Comments
While I strongly agree with your point (and generally agree with Clay's), Clay's incident occured because someone chose to use a technology format (DVD) which has restrictions *beyond* those defined by copyright law.
In other words, the issue wasn't with copyright law itself as it applies to Clay as a creator of something that might have a copyright. The issue was with using a technology which has defined its own "laws" of restriction / scarcity.
(Note: technically, it's also possible to use DVDs in a way that is untouched by these "laws", but it's the one specific, principle, use that includes these restrictions.)
Then the DMCA law protects those "laws" coded in the technology and prohibits adding useful features back on to DVD players / recorders--including ones which might make them more compatible with copyright (e.g., support of Clay's specific usage or public domain, etc.), and that also is a significant issue.
Posted by: Jay Fienberg | April 5, 2005 12:15 AM