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Correct, I'm an author. I have four nonfiction books published between 2013 and 2020. For what it's worth, I agree with you about the absurd length of copyrig
by jawns 6y ago
Correct, I'm an author. I have four nonfiction books published between 2013 and 2020.
For what it's worth, I agree with you about the absurd length of copyright protections. I am in favor of reducing the duration of copyright to a more reasonable length -- perhaps going back to the 1909 Act, which established a 28-year term that can be renewed for another 28-year term.
But I hardly think any reasonable person would say that copyright duration should be 6 years or less. Yet the Internet Archive is lending out digital copies of my 2014 book with no wait lists. It likely purchased or acquired one physical copy of that book but is distributing an unlimited number of digital copies. In every practical way, that is indistinguishable from piracy.
This isn't necessarily putting a dent in my wallet. My guess is that relatively few people who would access my book via the Internet Archive would otherwise go out and buy it with their own money.
But copyright gives me the ability to determine who gets to publish and distribute my creative works. And I have not given the Internet Archive permission to do so, nor does the "fair use" exception give them the ability to lend out copies they don't own during national emergencies.
- toomuchtodo 6y agoYou are free to opt out here [1]. > Authors who do not want their books in the National Emergency Library should send an email to info@archive.org with “National Emergency Library Removal Request” as the subject line. Please include each URL of the book or books you would like to have removed. Please allow up to 72 hours for processing as we are a small team. I am a reasonable person, and believe that even 28 years is too long. Perhaps 10 years, tops, for both patents and copyright. I am not a domain expert though, and therefore would defer to someone who is, such as Lawrence Lessig [2]. [1] https://help.archive.org/hc/en-us/articles/360042654251-National-Emergency-Library-FAQs#h_eb32bd5e-40c1-450d-8035-77e1d54a6a2b https://help.archive.org/hc/en-us/articles/360042654251-Nati... [2] https://hls.harvard.edu/faculty/directory/10519/Lessig https://hls.harvard.edu/faculty/directory/10519/Lessig
- jawns 6y agoI'm aware of the opt-out option, but I don't think that makes the National Emergency Library program any more palatable. There are plenty of other piracy sites out there that are distributing digital copies of my books illegally, and if any of them were to offer an opt-out option, I would feel the same way. It's still piracy.
- toomuchtodo 6y agoI believe we fundamentally disagree about the extent to which copyright should provide for rights and controls for those who generate content. I appreciate the conversation regardless.