In class we talked about Lawrence Lessig, the creator of the Creative Commons. The Creative Commons is a non-profit organization that allows copyright holders to grant some rights to their work while retaining some rights.
You can find the video here:
There are several points that he makes in this talk. The most striking one is: excessive copyright laws are resulting in a loss of culture. He describes a society of ``rip, mix, burn'' and how it is not necessarily a bad thing. He also mentions that the mere holding of copyrights gives the owner such power, such that s/he can prevent any opposition to his/her work.
There are several copyright terms mentioned such as:
- RIAA: Recording Industry Association of America
- DMCA: Digital Millennium Copyright Act
- DRM: Digital Rights Management
The last two terms are interesting in light of computers. The DMCA makes it criminal to circumvent copyright protections in software. This is even if the ``hack'' would make the product better! [Lessig mentions this when he discusses the AIBOs.] Since it is too easy to create copies of software, just because you bought it doesn't mean that you can do anything you want with it. That is: it's not the same as purchasing a tangible item, like furniture, that you can modify to your content. If the software sucks, your just stuck.... at least legally...
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