April 03, 2005

Copyright laws getting stupid

Clay Shirky was given a DVD made by a friend of him speaking. Yet, he ran into problems when he tried to copy it for himself.

Got that? I am in possession of a video, of me, shot by a friend, copied to a piece of physical media given to me as a gift. In the video, I am speaking words written by me, and for which I am the clear holder of the copyright. I am working with said video on a machine I own. Every modern legal judgment concerning copyright, from the Berne Convention to the Betamax case, is on my side. AND I CAN'T MAKE A COPY DIRECTLY FROM THE DEVICE. This is because copyright laws do not exist to defend the moral rights of copyright holders -- they exist to help enforce artificial scarcity.

Posted by Casper at April 3, 2005 11:12 PM
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