(Fwd) Copyright Assembly


Subject: (Fwd) Copyright Assembly
From: Barbara Schleihagen (eblida@nblc.nl)
Date: pe 18 helmi  2000 - 10:42:18 EET


Forwarded from liblicense-list for your information.
Barbara Schleihagen

------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
From: "Hamaker, Chuck" <cahamake@email.uncc.edu>
To: "'liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu'"
<liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu> Subject: Copyright Assembly Date
sent: Thu, 17 Feb 2000 13:54:30 EST Send reply to:
 liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu

This is from today's USA Today:
http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20000217/1944565s.htm

"Creation of the so-called Copyright Assembly was announced
Wednesday at a congressional hearing. "(N.B.>: it is NOT a
congressional initiative--)

"It includes a who's who of modern media. Among them: CBS, NBC,
ABC/Disney, MGM, Paramount, Sony, Time Warner, Universal, the
Directors Guild of America, the Writers Guild of America and all
major sports leagues, including the NBA, NFL, NHL, Major League
Baseball, the NCAA and NASCAR. "

The issue they are "all" concerned with:

Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America.
...pointed to ''illegitimate intruders'' on the Internet who ''steal
copyrighted works."

N.B.> It;'s unclear to me what "steal" means in this context, as part of
the article refers to media lawsuits against people who "copy"
copyrighted material on the net.

What is surprising to me is that commercial publishers don't seem to
be listed as members of this "copyright assembly" nor are user's
interests represented in any way. This seems to be "big" business
getting together to discuss how to protect a market they already
monopolize. Where are the librarians? Where are the public interest
groups. Not to worry corporate America will take care of it???
(tongue in cheek alert)

Given the efforts we've seen with laws extending copyright with a
major impact on making cartoon characters live long past their natural
lifetimes in corporate bliss and the recent attempts by a drug maker to
extend their patents, this development is not, in my opinion,
particularly a good sign for the future of everything from standards for
webcast media to what the machines on the receiving end can do.
This is not just about copyright, but about the future of technology,
and of technological capabilities and of course of limiting future
revenue streams to current perceptions of how to be profitable.

Corporate owners of copyrighted material don't have a particularly
"good" sense of what is even in their own best interests, witness the
VCR wars, which if copyright owners had their way, would have
prohibited the development of the enormous revenue stream and
businesses that developed from renting videos, etc. (in my opinion)

Chuck Hamaker



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