In the April 6, 2007 edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education, there are two articles that I found interesting, and open up a bit of a paradox.
The Chronicle of Higher Education – A Blogger Infiltrates Academe talks about Cory Doctorow and his current teaching position at the University of Southern California. He’s teaching at the school’s Center for Public Diplomacy for the year. Its a pretty nice article, providing some good information on his background, his work with the Electronic Freedom Foundation and his outspoken criticism of current copyright practices. I’d love to sit in on one of his classes, they sound like fun. The article states:
…Doctorow says his goal is not to train a generation of ‘copyleft’ advocates but rather to give students the sense that intellectual property is, at the very least, a field with plenty of gray areas.
And for an example of these copyright gray areas you only need to turn to the back page of the same issue:
The Chronicle of Higher Education — Greatest Game You Ever Heard? He’s Got It
This article relates the story of John Miley Jr. who has collected over 100,000 televised sports broadcasts, including all 41 Super Bowls. The article talks about the historical significance of this collection (certainly true) and his interest in eventually selling it — but wait a minute. He is not the copyright holder to these, and certainly doesn’t have the right to transfer ownership, especially for financial gain. And the Super Bowl folks have proven themselves quick to protect their copyrights. Although the article does mention that he’s been used as a resource by news organizations who have purchased some of his historic footage. Mr. Miley isn’t just commenting on these broadcasts, he even re-mixes them, creating highlight reels.
Mr. Miley is certainly adding value to this material, both by his work in collecting and cataloging it, as well as sorting through it and pulling out the interesting bits. But if he takes someone else’s copyrighted broadcasts, and without their explicit permission copys it and redistributes it, isn’t that a violation of copyright law? I think he should be able to do this, mind you, but I think it is just one example of the validity of Mr. Doctorow’s argument.
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Randall Rode's online home for thoughts, notes, and experiments with a wide range of technology topics. Visit the about page for info on my recent projects and professional background. I welcome your comments!
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