Re: Reuters on Elvis and copyright directive

> On Mon, 19 Jul 2004, Andrew A. Adams  wrote:
> > I just picked up a copy of Lessig's latest book, Free Culture, which is all
> > about this issue. Recommended, as are all of his books, but this one is
> > particularly nice for the freaky cover.
Rory replied:
> I'm reading it too. A very good book. And a good thing is that it's
> realeased under a Creative Commons licence (Attribution-NonCommercial),
> and you can downloaded it for free from www.free-culture.cc

Yeah, but the freakiness of the cover doesn't come out that well on the 
screen. Works much better on the physical book :-).

Still, Larry is practising what he preaches, which must be applauded.

On the subject of promoting the public domain, here's a pre-announcement of a 
lecture I'll be giving in the autumn at The University of Reading. This is 
one of their Public Lecture Series. It's arranged but the official publicity 
won't be coming out for a while. Cory Doctorow will be the chair.

University of Reading Public Lecture Series
Tuesday 19th October 2004 19:00
Title: Copyright vs Creativity
Speaker: Dr Andrew A. Adams

The original "copyright bargain" was developed in the world of the printing 
press to ensure that commercial publishers had an incentive to commission 
writers. It was justified as presenting a fair bargain between the creators 
and the consumers of artistic and literary works. New technology has 
constantly presented challenges to the existing copyright regime, and 
particularly to those who grew fat upon the old technology. Mostly the urge 
to create new culture from old has overridden the desires of the middlemen to 
retain their business model in framing copyright law with respect to new 
technology. Recent developments in copyright threaten not only the right to 
create but the right to engage with our culture, and in addition to stifle 
technological developments. The debate in recent years has been about 
ownership and reward. It is time for the debate to move away from concepts of 
property and profit and back to the fundamental question of not only allowing 
creativity but encouraging creative development of our cultural heritage. 
Too much existing work is being lost, and new work being stifled, just to 
keep hold of an outdated business model. What was originally justified as 
encouraging creativity has become an impediment to it.


Profile of A. A. Adams:

Dr Andrew Adams is a lecturer in Systems Engineering. Although originally a 
researcher in computer mathematics his interests now include the social, 
legal and ethical issues of computer and communication technology. His book, 
Social Issues of the Internet Age (co-authored with Dr McCrindle) is due for 
Publication in December 2004.



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