Silly Copyright change debate......

Submitted by marccanter on Mon, 11/23/2009 - 17:12.

George Nemeth and myself have been invited to debate the silly notion that copyright laws should be changed to "protect" old media. Lordy lordy lordy. debate

Dec. 1st, noon.

Here's a few of the issues I'll bring up during the debate:

- the 4th estate doesn't get any more special treatment, they're "just" a business like everyone else

- Hollywood resisted the VCR when it first came out - and the DVD as well

- 85% of Italians claimed they would NEVER use a cell phone - in 1989

- instead of trying to game the laws, why doesn't the Plain Dealer think of itself as a platform?

It was this very debate that drove me to create that post for Connie Schultz - back at the end of June this summer.

And BTW if you wanna know how I do in debates, why don't you ask Dave Winer what happened when he and I debated at Stewart Alsop's Agenda conference in 1988. The theme was "should HyperCard be system software?"

( categories: )

Argue naked!

Submitted by lmcshane on Tue, 11/24/2009 - 09:12.

  Good to see you Marc--swimming is the best exercise :)  Here's the entire upcoming City Club line-up.  Argue naked!

(BTW--if you know of any Californians looking to relocate to NEO, please have them contact me :)

GOOD content

Submitted by lmcshane on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 00:51.

Open source is out of the bottle and it's not going back, but does it provide content worth keeping? The debate rages on in libraries, especially, as they go into cost-cutting mode. 

One casualty, at least so far at CCPL, has been the elimination of the costly Worldcat database for searching worldwide library catalogs.  CCPL has Ohiolink and SearchOhio.  Does this access suffice for information hungry patrons?  Most have already discovered alternative routes to content, like Open Worldcat, anyway. Does it pay to have the content--and the record as means of access--better organized? 

Worldcat doesn't run off good will and, as much as Wikipedia does run largely on good will, it has major costs to bear--especially, the time and energy of its contributors.  Worldcat is betting on its product Local Worldcat, which will base a functional bibliographic record on the creator of content.  The artist, the author, the musician, the filmmaker---we do want attribution in society for our information.  I predict that libraries will participate and pay for this better access.

Marc, I look forward to listening to the podcast of your debate.  Unfortunately, I can't be there in person, so I will enjoy your podcast on/through the Internet.  (Who owns that content?)

I think copyright is a red herring--anyhow, so, if the debate, discusses newspapers, I hope they consider how they can improve attribution, record standards and access. I know that I am willing to pay for better attribution, record keeping and access to good content. 

I am betting others will, too.

(content updated)

Serenity Prayer

Submitted by lmcshane on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 00:25.

It cracks me up to see that the attribution of the Serenity Prayer is still debated.  Those trouble-maker librarians!!!

Is there money to be made on the copyright of the Serenity Prayer??