Brazilian Librarians: Copyright Is A Fear-Based Reaction To Open Access To Knowledge

from the say-that-one-again dept

Mon, Nov 1st 2010 1:26pm — Mike Masnick

David Weinberger recently had an interesting blog post about his attendance at a conference of Brazilian university librarians, where he was very encouraged to learn of the many ways in which the librarians are embracing the internet to improve access to knowledge, and are hoping this leads to much greater things. Not surprisingly, questions on copyright came up, and Weinberger notes that many he spoke to are quite worried about how copyright is holding back access to knowledge:

The question of copyright seems to weigh heavily on just about everyone's mind. (Keep in mind, of course, the self-selection of those with whom I have talked.) Copyright is only perceived as an obstacle if you are intent on maximizing access to the works of human intellect and creativity. If you are afraid of what open access means, then copyright looks like a bulwark. But, if you are confident that we together -- with the invaluable aid of librarians, among others -- can overall steer ourselves right, then the current copyright regime looks like a fear-based reaction.

I think that encapsulates a number of important points. Historically, if you look at copyright, it has almost always been exactly that: a fear-based reaction to something new -- some new technology or innovation that helped spread knowledge in a way that potentially removed barriers from a gate-keeper. And, the deeper you look, you quickly realize that almost every single one of those "fear-based reactions" was massively overhyped and had little basis in evidence, fact or reality. And yet... the laws that were passed based on fear stick around. No one ever goes back and says "hey, we passed this law because we believed the fearful claims of industry X, but it appears those fears were unfounded."

It's good to see that folks in Brazil are taking this seriously, however. We recently noted that Brazil is considering new copyright laws now, with some surprising characteristics, such as penalties for those who inhibit fair use or the public domain. It's nice to see at least one country looking to move away from fear-based reactions when creating copyright laws.

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Filed Under: brazil, copyright, knowledge, librarians, libraries, open access

13 Comments

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jupiterkansas (profile), 1 Nov 2010 @ 1:44pm

I don't know much about the legal system but is there some part of the Justice Department that continually reviews laws and repeals or revises ones that are no longer relevant or pose difficulties?

Or do we just keep piling up more and more laws until nobody can do anything anymore?

Just curious.
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- A Dan (profile), 1 Nov 2010 @ 2:10pm
  
  Re:
  No. That would be Congress's job. Some people propose that we require sunset dates in legislation to keep the number of laws from continually increasing (and so bad legislation dies off), but it's not happening.
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  - A Dan (profile), 1 Nov 2010 @ 2:11pm
    
    Re: Re:
    Wikipedia:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunset_provision#United_States
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- Jay (profile), 1 Nov 2010 @ 2:12pm
  
  Sunset Review
  I'm aware of a few things like this but it's a joke. It's a bureacracy that is set up to stop bad laws. It's just like the DMCA process if you want to really get down to it. Basically, the more laws they keep going, the more work they have which keeps them employed. So they may get to a few laws but it's the laws that are EXTREMELY outdated or the laws that have a very large uproar to be repealed. You'll probably do better to sue in court and have the Supreme Court change the law.
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- mikej, 1 Nov 2010 @ 3:10pm
  
  Re:
  lawyers do have to stay busy and prove their worth somehow, you know.
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Jay (profile), 1 Nov 2010 @ 1:47pm

Actually...
Brazil isn't the only country that is looking into better copyright law.

Isn't Spain also very balanced in the fact that their law also respects consumers?
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- Anonymous Coward, 1 Nov 2010 @ 2:02pm
  
  Re: Actually...
  Not really.
  
  Spain has a tax on digital recording devices, so personal filesharing is already "paid for". It's still far better in Canada, where the push is to tax AND to DMCA, but it's not that good...
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  - Hephaestus (profile), 2 Nov 2010 @ 6:56am
    
    Re: Re: Actually...
    Actually spains tax on recording devices is going to be repealed over the next couple years. It doesnt fit into EU law in several places. It just hasn't been challenged along those lines yet.
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Hulser (profile), 1 Nov 2010 @ 3:24pm

Brazillion
David Weinberger recently had an interesting blog post about his attendance at a conference of Brazilian university librarians

That's a lot of librarians. Where are they from?
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Nov 2010 @ 3:49pm

Take away all public funding for libraries and universities in Brazil and see if you get a fear-based reaction then.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Nov 2010 @ 5:05pm

At last, a government that doesn't throw orphans in jail because they sang Christmas carols without a performance license! If only more countries were so forward-thinking...
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- Anonymous Coward, 1 Nov 2010 @ 7:08pm
  
  Re:
  Actually, Brazilian judges do overreact when applying copyright laws and tend to be as strict as sanely possible...
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Anon, 1 Nov 2010 @ 6:36pm

I'm from the USA and I think copyright is as bad or worse than capitlaism which it feeds into.
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