Monthly Archives: June 2003

Kevin Kelly writes with the following amazing story:

> Thought you’d enjoy this. I was researching some stuff today and read
> this amazing story in THE INVENTION OF PRINTING IN CHINA, by Thomas
> Carter (1955):
>
> Carter is describing the very first printed book in the world, the
> DIAMOND SUTRA, a intact copy of which was found in a secret cave
> chamber in Kansu China. The book was published on May 11, 868.
> That’s, what, some 1100 years ago. Here is the key: the very first
> book ever printed had a public domain notice. Here’s what Carter says
> [p. 56]:
>
> The book consists of six sheets of text and one shorter sheet with
> woodcut, all neatly pasted together so as to form one continuous roll
> sixteen feet long… At the end, printed into the text, is the
> statement that the book was “reverently made for universal free
> distribution by Wang Chieh on behalf of his two parents on the 15th
> of the 4th moon of the 9th year of Hsien-t’ung.”
>
> Designated Universal Free Distribution from day one.
>
> Wang Chieh would have signed the petition. Continue reading →

We have launched a petition to build support for the Public Domain Enhancement Act. That act would require American copyright holders to pay $1 fifty years after a work was published. If they pay the $1, the copyright continues. If they don’t, the work passes into the public domain. Historical estimates would suggest 98% of works would pass into the pubilc domain after 50 years. The Act would do a great deal to reclaim a public domain.

This proposal has received a great deal of support. It is now facing some important lobbyists’ opposition. We need a public way to begin to demonstrate who the lobbyists don’t speak for. This is the first step.

If you are an ally in at least this cause, please sign the petition. Please blog it, please email it, please spam it, please buy billboards about it — please do whatever you can. And most importantly, please help us explain its importance. There is a chance to do something significant here. But it will take a clearer, simpler voice than mine. Continue reading →

The Supreme Court has unanimously decided the Dastar case — and correctly. The issue was whether a film producer could be held $1.5m liable for using a public domain film without giving credit to the former copyright owner. The decision is being described as a loss for 20th Century Fox. It is more accurately a gain for the public domain. Continue reading →

Tomorrow’s vote at the FCC is discussed in Dan Gillmor’s column. The FCC will liberate the networks to consolidate because the FCC feels pressured by the courts. (“Courts” means the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which sees a pressing First Amendment claim favoring network owners, but no First Amendment claim defending the public domain (“copyrights are categorically immune” from First Amendment scrutiny)). Read Dan’s column and wonder: here in this democracy, this universal opposition to the actions of a bureaucracy does what exactly? Continue reading →

This is an important week. Monday, the FCC rules on its mediacon rules. Monday could also be the day the Supreme Court decides the Dastar case. But most important of all: Wednesday, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals hears the Aimster case.

EFF has written an amicus in the case (have you contributed yet?). EFF’s core argument is that it is time that a Court of Appeals properly interpret the Sony Betamax case. Of all the Courts of Appeals in the US, this is the best one to hear this issue. (Bias-meter reading: high. I clerked at that court). Let’s hope it hears it well.

This has been an issue close to my own heart. The best thing about Sony is that it recognized the harm that legal uncertainty can impose upon innovation. If innovators have to guess how a federal court will balance the effects of its technology upon copyright interests, then there will be less innovation. Thus the genius of its rule was that it said essentially this: if your technology is “capable” of a “substantial noninfringing use,” then the question of whether your technology should be permitted is no longer a judicial question. If it is capable of a substanial noninfringing use, then the question of balancing (which is always at the core of copyright) is left up to Congress.

The judges don’t get announced in a case in the 7th Circuit before the argument, so we can’t know who will hear the case. But if you’re anywhere close to Chicago, you should go see the argument. It is said that Aimee Deep will be there. But whether true or not, the freedom of that spirit will at least have a chance in Chicago. Continue reading →