[Open-access] Copyright Law Destroys Markets

Tue Nov 20 11:38:16 UTC 2012

A few days ago, Republicans released a report about flaws of copyright 
law, suggesting revolutionary reforms. Very important initiative for all 
academia. Scholars should speak and strongly back the initiative, to 
help liberate academic literature. You can read a write-up here 
<http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121116/16481921080/house-republicans-copyright-law-destroys-markets-its-time-real-reform.shtml>. 
Some quotes:

  * [about term of protection]/... Gradually this period began to
    expand, but today's copyright law bears almost no resemblance to the
    constitutional provision that enabled it and the conception of this
    right by our Founding Fathers.//
    - Original Copyright Law [AD 1790]: *14 years*, plus 14 year renewal
    if author is alive.
    - Current Copyright Law: *Life of author plus 70 years*; and for
    corporate authors *120 years after creation* or 95 years after
    publication.

    /
  * /copyright continue to be extended perpetually, ensuring that works
    *never* actually enter the public domain (...) that would
    effectively nullify Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the
    *Constitution* which provides protection only for "limited times."

    /
  * /[copyright] *penalizes legitimate journalism* and oversight (...)
    Current copyright law allows for producers of written materials,
    such as memos or other documents, to claim copyright when they are
    seeking to hide incriminating information.

    /
  * /Because there is minimal or nearly non-existent punishment for
    bogus copyright claims today, false takedown requests are common and
    have a chilling effect upon legitimate speech.//(...) This often
    leads to de facto *censorship*.

    /
  * /Current copyright law does not merely distort some markets --
    rather it *destroys* entire markets.

    /
  * [from Infringement Nation] /things you do every single day are
    infringing and leave *every single person* liable for *billions in
    damages* each year/

(emphasis mine)
There's a separate section on academic literature. Quoting in full:

*B. Hampering scientific inquiry:*
Scientific papers from the early portion of the 20th century are still 
under copyright. . .
This is illogical, as the purpose of most scientific papers is to 
further intellectual
inquiry, and the goal of most authors of scientific papers is to advance 
their field and
to be cited in other publications. Many professors are assessed upon the 
number of
citations for their major works. For these reasons, keeping their work 
in what are
effectively locked vaults defeats the purpose of much of their work.
Obviously these producers need to be compensated to justify the cost of 
their
research, but after around 14 years, most, if not nearly all, of the 
earning capacity of
their work has been exhausted, and at that point the overriding interest 
is in ensuring
that these works are available for others. While there are exceptions in 
the law for the
use of this material for good faith exceptions, there are numerous 
examples where
for-profit entities want to use published journal articles but are 
unable to do so
without negotiating a payment to the producer of the content.
If however, these older papers were available online for free on Google 
Scholar to
anyone to access and use after a reasonable period of time then it would 
greatly
increase the availability and utilization of scientific analysis.

-- 
Marcin Wojnarski, Founder and CEO, TunedIT
http://tunedit.org
http://www.facebook.com/TunedIT
http://twitter.com/wojnarski
http://www.linkedin.com/in/marcinwojnarski

TunedIT - Online Laboratory for Intelligent Algorithms

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