Google Book Settlement & Lessig on Copyright Law
/Much is being made of the pending Google book settlement. Now Microsoft, Amazon and Yahoo are jumping in to object to the settlement. Despite all of the fuss about Google, this complex matter truly results from a lack of appropriate stewardship of our intellectual property laws by Congress. It is why issues like the Google settlement are relegated to the courts (see Lessig's lecture at the bottom of this post). The problem has become increasingly obvious due to advancing technologies which have uncovered the irrelevance of the IP rules and it is putting a great deal at risk for our society and our innovation culture - see Lessig's recent book ReMix, Making Art Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy.
US copyright laws are severly broken and this issue and its consequences need to be addressed. However, the skewed priorities of U.S. elected leaders, driven by contributions and corprorate interests from the likes of Disney et al, won't allow it. To learn more about how broken our copyright rules are, please view this Colbert Report interview with Lawrence Lessig.
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Lawrence Lessig | ||||
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After your finished laughing, I highly recommend listening to Lessig's recent lecture in Cambridge on the Google book deal. It explains the implications of the settlement, concept offair use and our broken IP governance system clearly as noone but Lessig can.
