Week 10 Reading Response

Let me begin by saying that I have no background in law whatsoever, and my knowledge of copyright, at least until this week, involved discussions of plagiarism in my undergraduate history classes, and the fear of being caught downloading music I didn't pay for. With this base knowledge, I had mixed feelings about the readings for this week. All of them were interesting, but I probably read them at a pretty basic level, and may not have picked up on the more nuanced aspects of the discussions of copyright.

The first two readings, the excerpts from Shamans, Software, and Spleens and "Cultures and Copyrights" really helped me to understand more about what copyright law is and how it developed. I also thought Michael Brown's analysis of the Bulun Bulun case was very interesting. I find it both fascinating and confusing the many ways that copyright can be used in a modern context, such as in this reading where an aboriginal Australian group used copyright law to assert their rights and autonomy as an indigenous people. The final reading, "Telling Tales out of School," demonstrated another legal argument based on copyright based around academic research and scientific data. After reading it though, I was left wondering how the information contained therein is specifically applicable to librarianship. I look forward to our class discussion on these topics.

The article that I enjoyed reading the most was "Revising Copyright Law for the Information Age," by Jessica Litman. I really couldn't agree more with her assessment that we, as a nation, desperately need to radically revise, if not completely overhaul, our copyright laws. As she points out, today's digital technologies make basing copyright law literally on the right to make copies obsolete. Her discussion of the public's misconception of what copyright is, combined with my own similar misconceptions, make it obvious that copyright laws are so confusing and cumbersome that they are not practical in an age when almost anyone can gain access and easily copy almost any original work. And when people are being sued for millions of dollars for downloading a couple dozen songs from the internet (http://articles.cnn.com/2009-06-18/justice/minnesota.music.download.fine_1_jury-instructions-fined-sheryl-crow?_s=PM:CRIME), its pretty obvious there's something wrong with the system.

I can't pretend that I have the expertise to judge Litman's suggestions on how new copyright law should be constructed, but as an average user of copyrighted materials, her solutions seem viable. I think this is something that I, and all future librarians, should look into in greater detail. If copyright law is actually to be revised for the digital age, librarians should and probably will play a role in its construction, or at least the dialog surrounding the change. We are often the intermediaries between the general public that Litman describes in her article, and the copyrighted works they need access to. I think it's part of our job to help the public gain access to the ideas encompassed in copyrighted works without infringing on the rights of the creators of those works.