Copyright laws threaten our online freedom
OPS_admin | Jul 09, 2009 | Comments 0
Copyright laws threaten our online freedom
If you search for Elvis Presley in Wikipedia, you will find a lot of text and a few pictures that have been cleared for distribution. But you will find no music and no film clips, due to copyright restrictions. What we think of as our common cultural heritage is not “ours” at all.
On MySpace and YouTube, creative people post audio and video remixes for others to enjoy, until they are replaced by take-down notices handed out by big film and record companies. Technology opens up possibilities; copyright law shuts them down.
EDITOR’S CHOICE
Curb on content threatens France Telecom – Jul-07
E-retailers find big brands hard to touch – Jul-07
This was never the intent. Copyright was meant to encourage culture, not restrict it. This is reason enough for reform. But the current regime has even more damaging effects. In order to uphold copyright laws, governments are beginning to restrict our right to communicate with each other in private, without being monitored.
via FT.com / Comment / Opinion – Copyright laws threaten our online freedom.
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