Echill goes to the library
On Thursday, April 7th, a bunch of interesting fellows will be giving a talk at the New York Public Library on “Who Owns Culture?” (via BoingBoing). I’ll be there and I hope some of you will join me. It’s $10 for regular humans (only $7 for Young Lions, though I hear you can use your Ancient Elephant or Sneaky Hyrax card, too). Anyone who reads some or all of Lessig’s latest book beforehand qualifies for bonus points.
I really like that this event is being hosted by NYPL, because libraries are the primary examples of how keeping copyright limited in both scope and duration has been enormously good for our society as a whole. I think the talk will probably focus on what rights we as a society have to make sure our collective creative output, our culture, is preserved for future generations. In Kembrew McLeod’s new book Freedom of Expression®, Rick Prelinger notes that copyrights on films now last longer than the physical medium of film. This means that if the rights to a film cannot be easily established and cleared, it is most likely the film will rot in its can before anyone will be allowed to archive it. Even when the media is not at risk, there is the very real danger of works just being forgotten. Copyright now extends for so long, and the period of commercial viability for most works is so short, that most works will slip out of the public consciousness entirely before anyone is allowed to distribute them freely and widely. Sure, many of those works might be better off forgotten, but I don’t think we should be making that decision for everyone who comes after us. We can archive it all, easily. We should let the kids in 3723 decide for themselves if they like Better Than Ezra or not.
evan :: Mar.02.2005 :: Notices :: 4 Comments »
Sneaky who?
It’s a crazy rat-looking animal, obviously. My experience is limited to the rock hyrax, or rock dassie, which are found on Table Mountain in Cape Town. The crazy part is that they are more closely related to elephants than to rodents or rabbits.
Ben and I have encountered the rock hyrax as well, at the Ein Gedi nature preserve in the Negev desert. I didn’t think they were very sneaky.
I, too, have encountered the dassie on Table Mountain. Them fellas are kinda cute! I have a picture of myself with one in the background.
How’s the law-school stuff going? This reminds me that I need to get dsquared up and running again. Damn TA work has kept me away lately, but it won’t conquer me.
Speaking of dsquared, prepare for a brief sighting in NYC between March 23 and March 27. We can eat away from Tourist Central this time, and drink more beer.