FirstMonday article on copyright

["Sloan, Bernie" <bernies@uillinois.edu>]

FYI...an article on copyright in the October issue of FirstMonday:

Ewing, John. Copyright and authors. FirstMonday, 8(10), October 2003.

"For the past several hundred years, publishers have promoted a simplistic
view of copyright. Copyright is a matter of fairness to authors, they
argue. Authors own their creations and therefore should be free to control
them. But the history of copyright and its underlying philosophy
contradicts that simple view. Copyright is not about fairness to authors;
copyright is about balancing interests, including the interest of the
public. This article provides a (very!) brief history of copyright and its
philosophy in order to show that the publishers' simple view is
inaccurate, and suggests that understanding copyright's nature is the
first step to solve the problems of copyright in the modern world."

Full text at:

http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue8_10/ewing/index.html 

Bernie Sloan
Senior Library Information Systems Consultant, ILCSO
University of Illinois Office for Planning and Budgeting
616 E. Green Street, Suite 213
Champaign, IL  61820

Phone: (217) 333-4895
Fax:   (217) 265-0454
E-mail: bernies@uillinois.edu