Copyright for the digital age

Copyright for the digital age

Gregory Engels, Co-ChairmanPirate Parties International (PPI)

Presentation for UNESCO Conference with Moroccan Internet Society on Freedom of Expression over the Internet, Marrakech, Morocco, 16 February 2013.

Some Rights Reserved

• Copyright 2013 by Gregory Engels, Pirate Parties International. Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3.0 License

“Even the good become pirates in a

world where the rules seem absurd.”

Lawrence Lessing - Remix

Pirate Parties International

(PPI)• Founded April

2010 in Brussels

• 29 Pirate Parties from 5 continents

• rapidly growing movement

Source: Piratetimes.net

Gregory Engels

• Co-Chairman of Pirate Party International

• Entrepreneur

• Live in Germany

Source: Spiegel

Copyright - an Overview

• Originated 1710 in Statute of Anne

• Printers were given exclusive power to print (and obligation to censor) literary works

• has faced constant extension ever since

Source: Copyright advertisement from the New York Clipper, 1906.

Problems

• The interest of content industry has taken precedence over those of authors and consumers

Problems

• Today there are more copyrighted works being produced every minute then during the course of the whole XIX Century

Source: Visual News

We are here

Problems

• Copyright laws inhibit creation of new works

Source: youtube

Problems

attempts to apply copyright laws on new technologies inhibit progress

cc-by popculturegeek.com

Creative Commons

• A license set that allows an author to abandon voluntarily a some of his rights, under certain conditions

• Allows for non commercial usage

• Not possible in many countries, including Morocco, where authors rights are unalienable

Open Access

• Idea that scientific research papers should be free accessible

• 10% of all scientific publications as of today

• 100% of OA journals use CC licenses

CC-BY SASI Research Group 2010

Open Data

• free access to machine readable public datasets

• depends on availability of free licenses (often Creative Commons)

source: data.gov

Remix

• creation of new works by utilizing existing works

• the current Copyright system inhibit remixing heavily

source: hitRECord.org

Orphan Works

• impracticability of searching for rights holder of abandoned works

• danger of cultural loss

cc-by-nc-sa Brandon Woods

Fair Use

• The current copyright model inhibits use of works in educational environment

cc-by-nc-sa-nd libraryonthemove

Policy Recommendations

• If you go to change only three thing in Copyright, change this:

• allow free licenses like Creative Commons

• significantly lessen protection periods

• introduce fair use clause

Contact me

• Twitter: @dichter

• Email Gregory.Engels [௹] pp-international.net

Sources and used material

• http://www.visualnews.com/2012/06/19/how-much-data-created-every-minute/?view=infographic

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/popculturegeek/6791665578/

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/libraryonthemove/428619975/

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/retoxx/7457788230/

• http://www.publicknowledge.org/Copyright-3DPrinting

• http://piratetimes.net

• Cover photograf cc-by-nc-nd by Adam Lambert http://lucasthefierce.deviantart.com/art/Adam-Lambert-Age-of-aquarius-277054927