Sorry - posted from the wrong address. On Tue, Oct 18, 2011 at 12:01 PM, Patricia F Anderson <[email protected]> wrote: > Perhaps it is just me, but I get nervous hearing "teachers and libraries" > followed shortly by "Worse yet". > If you go back into the history of copyright & intellectual property law, > the origins stemmed from a desire to foster a positive relationship between > the creative individual and those who value their creative contributions to > society. The idea was that society at large benefits from individual > creativity, but when the work of the creative individual is stolen and > resold they often feel unappreciated and like "Why should I even try?" The > original intellectual property laws sought to prevent that problem from > occurring. It is quite enlightening tracking how incremental shifts in the > law over the years have resulted in a 180 degree shift, which is what we are > dealing with now. > > There are excellent reasons for the exemptions, with the ultimate goal being > the benefit of society, rather than the benefit to the creator. The latter > was specifically to protect the former! The exceptions & exemptions were > supposed to reflext those circumstances when protecting a creator's personal > interests would not be in the best interests of society. The issue of the US > Government as a publisher also has to do with the work-for-hire issue. What > can I say? These aren't simple issues. > The whole issue of Linden Labs and their constantly changing contracts is > different. Part of the question is when contract law trumps personal > intellectual property rights, and if this can be done via a click-through > license. That is a matter of some debate, and I have discussed this issue > (specifically with respect to Second Life & Linden Labs) with our University > Counsel. > I am not a lawyer of any sort (so listen to Karen before me!), but copyright > law is an old hobby of mine, and I have co-taught workshops on related > issues with copyright law specialists. For more insight into contemporary > trends in these issues, I recommend reading or watching Lawrence Lessig. > <http://remix.lessig.org/> > <http://www.ted.com/talks/lessig_nyed.html> > - Patricia / Perplexity > On Tuesday, October 18, 2011, Karen Palen <[email protected]> wrote: >> If you look up 17 USC 101 (US copyright statutes) then you find about 20 >> line defining what is "protected work" then the next 5000 line define >> limitations and exceptions that is what is NOT copyright-able! >> >> The largest publisher of books n the world (US Govt) cannot copyright >> anything for example. Teachers and libraries get some blanket exemptions >> as well. >> >> Worse yet, as a content creator myself the "ownership" of content even >> content that YOU have created is far from clear. Linden Labs lays some >> claim to YOUR work! The exact nature of this is undefined at present, >> but at various times they have simply forbidden ALL export of ANY >> content, even content that I created. >> >> At that point I moved all of my stores etc. out of Second Life, and >> rarely even visit any more. >> >> MY solution has been to create stuff on my own private "Diva" grid then >> IMPORT it wherever I want to use it. Even that gets a hassle from >> paranoid grid owners sometimes. >> >> While I do not condone the piracy that is happening, I do understand the >> frustration that causes it.
-- Patricia Anderson / SL: Perplexity Peccable [email protected] OR [email protected] Emerging Technologies Librarian, Health Sciences Libraries University of Michigan 1135 East Catherine Ann Arbor, MI 48109 "Google can give you 1,000 answers to your question. A librarian will give you the right one." _______________________________________________ Opensim-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/opensim-users
