Posted on 11/20/2007 10:21:26 AM PST by ShadowAce
How many copyright violations does an average user commit in a single day? John Tehranian, a law professor at the University of Utah, calculates in a new paper that he rings up $12.45 million in liability (PDF) over the course of an average day. The gap between what the law allows and what social norms permit is so great now that "we are, technically speaking, a nation of infringers."
Tehranian's paper points out just how pervasive copyright has become in our lives. Simply checking one's e-mail and including the full text in response could be a violation of copyright. So could a tattoo on Tehranian's shoulder of Captain Caveman—and potential damages escalate when Tehranian takes off his shirt at the university pool and engages in public performance of an unauthorized copyrighted work.
Singing "Happy Birthday" at a restaurant (unauthorized public performance) and capturing the event on a video camera (unauthorized reproduction) could increase his liability, and that's to say nothing of the copyrighted artwork hanging on the wall behind the dinner table (also captured without authorization by the camera). Tehranian calculates his yearly liability at $4.5 billion.
And all of this infringement could easily be done without even engaging in "wrong" behaviors like P2P file-sharing. Tehranian wants to make clear how such copyright issues don't simply affect those operating in the grey or black zones of the law; they affect plenty of ordinary people who aren't doing anything that they consider to be illegal, immoral, or even a little bit naughty.
The "vast disparity between copyright law and copyright norms" simply highlights the need for effective copyright reform. Since the 1976 Copyright Act, when all creative works automatically gained copyright protection without the need for registration, our lives have been awash in the copyrighted materials of other people. The advent of digital technology means not only that such works are simpler to use and to share, but that content owners for the first time have a realistic shot at enforcing their maximum rights.
That has led to plenty of bad press for copyright holders, as in the case of the "terminally ill Mexican immigrant on welfare" whose case Tehranian handled when the man was sued by the RIAA for his son's alleged file-swapping. More serious than such isolated cases, though, is the fact that the law currently gives so much power (even if much of it is not used) to content owners that it risks eroding respect for the necessary and even important uses of copyright law.
What better way could there be to create a nation of constant lawbreakers than to instill in that nation a contempt for its own laws? And what better way to instill contempt than to hand out rights so broad that most Americans simply find them absurd?
We’re all crooks now. Grab you hat, your wallet and your lawyer if you’re going out.
That’s the point. Gov’t has no control over innocent people.
Break up the RIAA monopoly.
1. Sin ain't sin when good people do it.
2. Blood is thicker than water.
3. It ain't against the law to kill a S.O.B.
I realize that not # 3 may not be true in all jurisdictions, but I think 1 and 2 are. The entertainment industry needs to use some common sense, or jury nullification will render copyright law meaningless.
At the same time the doctrine of fair use has been withering on the vine.
How about we all get pinstripe suits, Fedoras, and Tommy guns?
Corporate media, and their wholly owned subsidiaries in congress, did overreach on the last few changes to copyright law, and it is going to end up hurting them.
Unfortunately, big media can afford to buy more legislation than citizens can.
I wonder if he is as worried about blatent contempt for illegal immigration laws themselves, as he is with "the case of the "terminally ill Mexican immigrant on welfare" whose case Tehranian handled when the man was sued by the RIAA for his son's alleged file-swapping."?
Or, is he only interested in contempt for one set of laws, while winking at contempt for others?
AFAIC, we need to deport both the illegals AND the RIAA.
Holy thread hijack, Batman! This article says nothing about the legal status of that immigrant.
"Who wants a nation of innocent men? A nation of innocent men cannot be ruled. We want only the guilty."
True enough, but at least this is three extra hits on a languishing article that should be read.
Hope it helps the sidebar status.
It would also have been relevant to wonder if he is as concerned about nearly universally broken & ignored traffic laws giving a contempt for laws in general, or is only worried about his own narrow area, and how it relates to his pocketbook.
(& just going by the odds, legal status is most likely zilch...but saying it, or even implying it, without reference to the article's main thrust would really be a Hi, Jack!)
I also wonder if he would or wouldn't be upset by the 'unathorized' use of the passage quoted in my original post.
The more laws, the more lawbreakers
—Lau Tzu
“What better way could there be to create a nation of constant lawbreakers than to instill in that nation a contempt for its own laws?”
Conversely, what better way to instill contempt for the rule of law than to create a nation of constant lawbreakers? The Atlas Shrugged quote is appropriate.
And legislators. For example, the fairly recent extension of the life of a copyright, and suing 3,000 John Does.
The poster who remarked that such absurdities erode respect for the Law is correct.
In time, perhaps Big Media will not be able to pay the bribes, and we will be spared vexatious barratry by the likes of the RIAA. (Who even this moment, are puzzle by the warmth creeping up their leg, as I virtually urinate on them.)
No, I do not steal their content, myself, for the same reason I do not shoplift at flea markets-They have nothing I want.
The law is an ass (and did I violate it by quoting Dickens?).
I’m pretty sure Dickens is in the public domain....
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