HW: 19Nov07, Copyright

19Nov07

Do you think the current copyright laws are fair, unfair?
Fair, for the moment. I believe that it is safer to error on the side of caution and stay with the current copyright laws. This isn’t to say that we, or the industry, should not continue to review the laws to ensure that they make sense. The copyright laws will have to evolve with the technology.

Should there be such a thing as “intellectual property”?
Certainly intellectual property exists. But how often do any of us document our thoughts, ideas, in order to preserve them prior to sharing them? How do you know you’re your thought arrived before the person’s next to you, or halfway around the world. Intellectual property is a great idea, but until you can easily prove who’s thought or idea it is, it is pointless to generate a law.

Have you ever used materials in a way that was against copyright?
I think everyone has violated the copyright laws at one point or another. All you have to do is forward e-mail with an article in it, make a CD with music and pass it onto a friend, cut and paste a picture from the internet, or copy something from a book at the library. While the intent to violate the law is not there, it most likely has been violated.

Have you ever been unable to use something because copyright law prevented it?
Yes, at our office we have technical manuals that our copyrighted. We are not allowed to copy them or publish anything from them. So we end up reinventing the wheel by writing our own technical guides.

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