Re: New Scientology Video -- and the Death of Copyright?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

________________________________________
From: Alison Greenwald Neplokh [nosila () gmail com]
Sent: Friday, February 08, 2008 6:32 PM
To: David Farber
Subject: Re: [IP] New Scientology Video -- and the Death of Copyright?

If I interpret Mr. Weinstein's missive correctly, he means to say that
copyright is changed because it can no longer be used to suppress
works.  While copyright law can be used to suppress dissemination of
an unpublished work, copyright's primary goal is to promote the
dissemination of information.  Indeed, the Copyright Act, through the
first sale doctrine serves to, in most cases, protect against
suppression by the copyright owner.

Professor Anthony Reese of the University of Texas has a great article
titled "The First Sale Doctrine in the Era of Digital Networks"
(http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=463620) that
outlines the history of the First Sale Doctrine and how the digital
world is changing that (by removing the first sale protection).  Reese
discusses several cases where copyright owners have sought to remove
works from public dissemination for a variety of reasons and ways in
which the first sale doctrine has helped preserve public access to
these works.  One of the cases Reese cites is the Worldwide Church of
God's attempt to suppress dissemination of a book written by a church
leader that was later determined to contradict church doctrine.  The
availability of millions of copies in circulation allowed the public
to retain access to that information however "incorrect" it was in the
Church's new philosophy.

While the law should not reward those who violate copyright to bring a
non-public work into the public eye, copyright law is not a tool for
hiding information from the public.  Perhaps the YouTube phenomenon is
actually helping to restore part of the balance.

-Alison

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