Footnote to GSU discussion

[Joseph Esposito <espositoj@gmail.com>]

I am not going to wade in further on the GSU debate itself, but 
wish to add this footnote.  No one knows better than publishers 
themselves how complicated copyright compliance is.  This is 
because publishers have to clear copyright permissions all the 
time, not only with a work's primary author (obviously) but also 
with the copyright holders (or alleged holders) of the embedded 
material in so many works, all those pesky photos and drawings 
and charts.

My first full-time job in publishing was to handle rights and 
permissions at Rutgers University Press.  There were some authors 
who were diligent about clearing permissions (they went about it 
with the rigor of a scholar), some who were careless.  The 
administrative time that went into managing this process was way 
out of proportion to the apparent economic benefits of strict 
compliance and enforcement.

Now of course things are changing.  Electronic databases are 
gradually making it easier to identify reuse of material (as 
students asked to use the TurnItIn service can attest).  This 
will change how we think about copyright, not just because the 
Internet is one huge "copying machine," as some have called it, 
but also because the Internet is one big generator of user logs 
and other sometimes disturbing forms of control.  For better or 
worse, the argument that it is burdensome to comply with 
copyright requirements is going to slowly go away.

I am myself most interested in that future state: what will be 
the place of copyright (if any) when everything is digital, 
everything transparent to a highly motivated spider?  The 
corollary to this is, what systems, procedures, and businesses 
will arise that are native to that environment?

Joe Esposito