RE: What is wrong with this picture?

[Rebecca Stuhr <stuhrr@grinnell.edu>]

Copyright infringement has indeed been criminalized now, and copyright
violators can be sent to jail in the United States.  Under the DMCA (1998)
first offenses can bring up to $500,000 in damages plus 5 years in prison,
subsequent offenses twice that.  I agree emphatically that recent changes
in the copyright law protect only the publishers and distributers.  As
someone who has published and recorded, I can assure you that I won't make
one more cent from the changes to the copyright law than I did under the
previous copyright law and economic gain has little to do with my
incentive to write or perform.  We might need to remind ourselves that
copyright in the United States was intended to promote the "progress of
science and the useful arts by securing for limited times" exclusive
rights to the creator for their writings and discoveries.  And that there
was supposed to be a balance between providing incentive to create, and
making the products of creativity available to promote knowledge and
further creativity.

Rebecca Stuhr
Collection Development and Preservation Librarian
Grinnell College Libraries
Grinnell, Iowa 50112
stuhrr@grinnell.edu

______________

>1. Contrary to what publishers might want or think, we don't usually throw
>copyright violators in jail in the U.S.  We just fine them to death - $250
>per incident is the standard fine, and it can add up pretty quickly - at
>least, that's what my understanding is from a discussion we had just last
>week with our intellectual property rights lawyer.
>
>2. "Protecting authors" is just an excuse for the publishers.  What
>they're really protecting is their short-term revenue stream.
>
>Katherine Johnson
>Head, Technical Services
>Caltech Library System
>Millikan Library 1-32
>California Institute of Technology
>Pasadena, CA  91125
>Tel: (626) 395-6065	Fax: (626) 792-7540
>kjohnson@library.caltech.edu