Talking Copyrights And Technology In DC

from the going-to-DC dept

Tue, Apr 18th 2006 10:13am — Mike Masnick

The folks at the CATO Institute in Washington DC have invited me to participate in a half-day event they're putting on next week called: Copyright Controversies: Freedom, Property, Content Creation, and the DMCA. Considering how rare it seems for the policy people to discuss some of this stuff with folks from the industry who are not representing a huge corporate interest, it seemed like it would be fun and quite educational for me. All three panels look to have interesting speakers. The panel I'm on will be moderated by Kevin Maney from USA Today, which should be great as he's spent time in the past digging into some of the more important issues surrounding copyright. On the panel with me will be Gregory Lastowka, who is coming out with a paper called "Amateur to Amateur: The Rise of a New Creative Culture." I've read over a draft and it does a great job bringing to light an aspect of the copyright/technology debate that is way too often ignored: the fact that big copyright firms aren't the ones producing the important content online and bowing down to their needs doesn't make much sense. The other panelist will be Patrick Ross from the Progress and Freedom Foundation. Ross, you may recall, is the guy who once claimed that fair use stifles innovation. So, as you might imagine, it should be quite a bit of fun to discuss his views on copyright. The event is next Wednesday in DC. If you're in the area, come on out.

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7 Comments

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Mitch W, 18 Apr 2006 @ 10:42am

Wow would I love to go
Man I just used up all my vacation time to visit some family but otherwise I would be there as it is only an hour away! Go Mike Go! Please bring back anything and everything you learn to us readers. If you need anything while in the area feel free to contact me.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2006 @ 12:07pm

Hopefully - it will help some. Although I have a feeling the corporate spin machine will start up and just make it look like the corporations are the victims and us horrible consumer's are the criminals.

But nonetheless - maybe I'm just being pessimistic :)

GO MIKE GO!!
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2006 @ 12:17pm

CATO
I have read a lot of the items put out by CATO. Most are high quality, well reasoned items... However every once in a while the jump completely of the deep end of libertarianism.
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Mousky, 18 Apr 2006 @ 12:17pm

Re:
We are the criminals. I ended up watching a bunch of DVDs this past Easter weekend. Each one began with the FBI screen followed by the Interpol screen. Dammit, I paid for these DVDs - why do I need a warning about illegal copying and so forth. Does anyone think that those warning screens will scare off people from making copies?
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Josh, 18 Apr 2006 @ 12:53pm

Re: Re:
I don't think they scare anyone. They actually sell ripped off DVDs in DC at a flea market on the weekends.
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Michael "TheZorch" Haney, 18 Apr 2006 @ 1:37pm

I live near D.C.
I live in Alexandria, VA which is only a short Metro ride to downtown Washington, D.C. You can be sure I will try very hard to be there!
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X-Advertiser, 18 Apr 2006 @ 7:13pm

As seen on TV!
OH OH! I'm getting the pop-corn ready! Will it be recorded for prosperity? I would LOVE to see the debate made available for download. Well, so long as it hasn’t been patented. :)
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