WYMHM: "If today we were starting from scratch...what kind of copyright would we want?"

Copyright 1710-2010 “For the encouragement of learning”

The world’s first copyright law was passed by the English Parliament on 10 April 1710 as ‘An Act for the Encouragement of Learning’.  Its 300th anniversary provides a unique opportunity to review copyright’s purposes and principles.  If today we were starting from scratch, but with the same aim of encouraging learning‚ what kind of copyright would we want? 

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Ideas Bank

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The Future of Copyright

The Statute of Anne was 'An Act for the Encouragement of Learning'. What if, instead, it had been 'An Act for the Encouragement of Sharing'.

Bill Thompson
Comments: 2

For the Encouragement of Learning

In the case of Georgia’s creative sector I would like to address two issues that I believe are important to reach wider audiences and encourage learning.

Tamara Tatishvili
Comments: 0

The Seduction of Copyright

We must make fundamental changes to copyright law or risk its demise.

Lynne Spender
Comments: 1

Beyond Copyright

Most of today’s creativity takes place outside the sphere of traditional copyright.

Ronaldo Lemos
Comments: 1

Copyright and the Consent Principle

Citizens and consumers should have control over the use to which their personal data can be used by corporations and governments

Martin Smith
Comments: 0

21st Century Copyright Must Serve to Protect Cultural Rights

In my mind, copyright for the 21st century ought to recognise the difference between raw data and the finished, commercial product.

Hardesh Singh
Comments: 0

'One size fits all' dresses virtually everyone badly

If we were inventing copyright today, surely we would want to acknowledge that 'one size fits all' dresses virtually everyone badly.

Jimmy Wales
Comments: 0

Copyright is a Friction

I have been trying to obtain permissions to show a growing set of videos on the web since 2000. I did not think that it would take a decade of exploration to achieve very little.

Jon Pettigrew
Comments: 0

If There Were No Copyright, Would We Want It; And, If So, What Form Would It Take?

Quite simply: copyright guarantees creativity.

Gail Rebuck
Comments: 0

Rebooting Copyright: A Note on Terms

The ‘one size fits all’ concept has clearly created barriers to the legitimate and indeed desirable flow of information and knowledge.

Dr Frances Pinter
Comments: 0

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WYMHM: "Stills from violent video game Grand Theft Auto are being used to teach primary school children about violence."

Gaynor Bell, who lost two children in violent deaths, said the project was created to try to turn children away from violence at a young age.

Despite the game's 18-rated status, she said many children would have played it, and similar games, at home with elder siblings, and that they risked being de-sensitised to the violence involved.

She added: "They are shown a picture of a man rolling over a car and you can clearly see it has a machine gun.

"It's basically telling them that it's not real life, but in these games they do look real."

She added: "Children have very short attention spans so they need something that keeps them interested, preferably busy with their hands and it has to be something that allows them to be proactive."

WYMHM: "when punk came along, no one really called it punk."

all the people I hung around with were at art school or were involved in fashion, or creative people interested in rebelling. It was complemented by the music but the actual scene didn't last very long. It did, however, send big ripples across the pond. Then people started getting into the charts and the New Romantic scene was made up of a lot of people who were originally punks. It was a time of experimentation, especially with the music. Then there were those who did punk by numbers. But it was still a great time.

WYMHM: "most children explore pornography at some time in their lives...there is no statistical evidence that it causes specific harm"

what matters is how a child engages with this material. A passing curiosity may be easily satisfied and the interest abandoned; but sexual images have a special vividness and power, and may become addictive, as can many other internet activities, such as chatting or shopping or gaming. Personal accounts by people who have developed an obsession with pornography are disturbing: "It almost lodges itself into your mind, like a parasite sucking away the rest of your life," explains 16-year-old Malcolm, who participated in a 2007 study and reported spending between three to four hours each day visiting pornographic sites.

As well as the prospect of teenage boys watching violent porn, there is a concern about how it might distort their attitudes towards sex and women.

WYMHM: "Participants were very open in their Twitter postings and a strong community soon grew."

students were conscious that their messages were public and exercised mature self-editing in their online behaviour, with no incidences of inappropriate content being posted during the project. Although students were aware that their messages were being monitored by academic staff, in survey responses they stated that they did not regard this as an intrusion, and indeed frequently used Twitter in preference to alternative channels such as email to contact tutors to ask questions or arrange meetings. Approximately half of the students involved in the project have continued to use Twitter without the iPod Touch devices.

WYMHM: "A total of 144 authors were listed - equating to a mean contribution of 36.3 words each."

Professor Fairbairn added: "No doubt all those named contributed to the research. However, I find it difficult to understand how 144 individuals, however close their working relationship, could be involved in writing it.

"I find it even more difficult to imagine how any assessment at all could be made of their contribution when it comes to awarding academic brownie points."

The problem is not new. In 1996, John Hudson, professor of economics at the University of Bath, produced a paper titled "Trends in multi-authored papers in economics".

He noted that while "the economist of the early postwar years was typically a solitary worker ... the economists of today are much more inclined to hunt in packs".

WYMHM: "the Internet has evolved from being a distraction to something that feels more sinister."

Even when I am away from the computer I am aware that I AM AWAY FROM MY COMPUTER and am scheming about how to GET BACK ON THE COMPUTER. I've tried various strategies to limit my time online: leaving my laptop at my studio when I go home, leaving it at home when I go to my studio, a Saturday moratorium on usage. But nothing has worked for long. More and more hours of my life evaporate in front of YouTube. Supposedly addiction isn't a moral failing, but it feels as if it is.

 

WYMHM: "Network effects are the glue of network society."

In essence, the network effect describes the positive externalities (value) of a product, service, or activity as more people use it. An organization taking advantage of the principle may refer to the practice as “crowdsourcing” (e.g. Wikipedia, Dell’s Ideastorm, iPhone Apps) taking advantage of the “wisdom of the crowds”. Individuals may also aggregate and mobilize for a specific cause, be it political, civic or commercial (e.g. Moveon.org, Ukrainian orange revolution). The emergence of the latter can be of spontaneous and real-time nature.