MPAA and software copyright
From Boing Boing, MPAA Rips Off Freeware Author. Cory Doctorow writes about someone at the MPAA making them hypocrites by not following software licensing terms. They used the coder’s free blogging tools, but didn’t link back to the author’s site or leave the lines giving him credit, as the terms and conditions required. Doctorow makes some very good observations.
Copyright law is hard. It used to only govern relations between giant industrial players. Copyright didn’t regulate reading an interesting tidbit from the newspaper for a friend. It didn’t regulate watching movies. But now, sharing a newspaper article with a friend (by blogging it) involves copying, and so triggers copyright. Now watching a movie (by downloading it) involves copying, so it triggers copyright. The rules that are supposed to be interpreted by lawyers at Fortune 100 companies now apply to every single kid working on a project for her class’s website.
This is like having to file with the SEC every time you loan a buddy $5 for lunch.
One would hope that the MPAA as an organization would learn from this experience.
bart said,
May 14, 2007 @ 4:19 am
The MPAA is looking to turn the Internet from a source of frustration to a means of innovation for Hollywood. The trade org, which usually finds itself on the defense against online pic piracy, is assembling an online consumer panel that it will periodically survey “about all things related to the movies–from theater attendance to home-video rental and advertisements to piracy,” topper Dan Glickman announced Tuesday. Effort is a nod to the increasing cultural pervasiveness of the ‘Net, and its goal, per Glickman, is to provide studios with “consistent.