Pamela Samuelson, who has taught this stuff for 25 years, has written a brilliant article [pdf] that kickstarts a commonsense rewrite of US copyright law.

She provides an outline of what topics ought to be covered by a copyright law, plugs in the current US law, and then suggests a set of plugins that are simpler, clearer, better suited for the digital age, and that better balance the rights of creators and the public. Now she hopes we’ll talk amongst ourselves and come up with a model law that might make it easier for Congress to make the change.

Pam writes: “A model copyright law should also be written in plain English so ordinary people, and not just the high priests of copyright, can understand what it means and the normative reason that it should be part and parcel of the basic statutory framework.” Appropriately, the paper itself — about ten pages, when you subtract the footnotes — while designed for lawyers, is clear and compelling. (Thanks to BoingBoing for the link.) [Tags: copyright pam_samuelson ]

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