Sunday Comic: Balance

Ok, so once again, it’s actually monday here in Sweden…. But hey, in a large part of the world it’s still sunday, so this post still counts!

Here’s another favourite Mimi and Eunice comic strip from the archives of Nina Paley!

copyrights all about balance balancing creators' and the public's need for free expression / with copyright lawyers need for paychecks

Ever noticed how most corporations pushing for stricter legislation to “protect creators” never actually create anything themselves, except lawsuits?

Barry Eisler: 25 Years of Copyright Would Be More than Enough

Photo: Barry Eisler

Barry Eisler

Over at techdirt.com, best-selling author and former intellectual property lawyer Barry Eisler is talking about Copyright, Piracy And Why SOPA/PIPA Are ‘Extremely Disturbing’.

Copyright terms have grown to be over a century. No reasonable person can claim that, with a term of less than a century, artists wouldn’t be adequately incentivized to create. So current copyright terms are clearly too long from the standpoint of what’s best for society overall. Personally, I think a twenty-five year term would be more than enough. Anyone who claims he wouldn’t bother creating if he could only commercially exploit his creation for a quarter century wasn’t going to create anything worthwhile anyway.

If you are at all interested in this stuff, you really should go read it right away!

Sunday Comic (on a monday!): Censorship vs. Copyright

FAIL! Sunday went by so fast that I missed posting a comic strip!

Here it is, though, another Mimi and Eunice strip from Nina Paley!

They're totally different!

This is another favourite of mine, as it highlights a real problem with copyright legislation today. The fact that it is increasingly used as a tool for censorship.

I’ll be back tonight with a new Album of the Week!

Cory Doctorow: It’s Time to Stop Talking About Copyright

Cory Doctorow has written a fantastic piece for Locus Online, on what’s wrong with the current debate about copyright.

There just isn’t such a thing as ‘‘copyright policy’’ anymore. Every modern copyright policy becomes Internet policy – policy that touches on every aspect of how we use the net.

And as we make the transition from a world where everything we do includes an online component to a world where everything we do requires an online component, it’s becoming the case that there’s no such thing as ‘‘Internet policy’’ – there’s just policy.

I highly recommend everyone to read it!

Link: http://www.locusmag.com/Perspectives/2011/11/cory-doctorow-its-time-to-stop-talking-about-copyright/