No answers here, but as I continue to examine this issue I’m drawing some conclusions, and getting scared at the same time.
Some online sources that I’ve looked at:
- Michael Geist’s Blog (Canada Research Chair in Internet and e-Commerce Law)
- CopyRightWatch.ca
- Protecting Ourselves to Death: Canada, Copyright & the Internet, by Laura Murray
- Lessig’s Free Culture, a comprehensive and historical American view
- Steal This Idea a popular book on the subject
- Steve Gilbert’s advice on Campus Technology, which includes this quote from Harlan Cleveland, “Protecting intellectual property is the wrong verb about the wrong noun.”
Here is a quote from a 1999 article, Intellectual Property, Information and the Common Good:
Ideas as property will be more and more of an issue for our connected society and especially for those in the learning profession. I believe that locking-up ideas will not foster innovation or cultural growth.
A counter to multinational corporations claiming ever longer and more restrictive copyright protection are movemments like Creative Commons (CC). Through CC or Google’s advanced search (use the “Usage Rights” drop down menu) you can find audio, images, text, video, and other formats that are free to share online. You can also use a CC Licence to make your work easier to share, while retaining some rights.
Update:
I just had to add this quote from Michael Geist. Makes me proud to be Canadian:
On the Internet, publishing is so cheap it’s effectively free. Creating copies is no longer a viable business niche. Literally anybody can do it almost effortlessly. There’s no profit to be had in that space, just laws and business models left over from a previous age.