[GPSCC-chat] DA GREEN PARTY CLUB - A2K IS A HUMAN RIGHT - FORUM AT 1:30 PM WED MAY 1

[Spencer Graves]

       I wish to share a perspective on this as the author of 2 books, 
30 published technical papers, 3 patents and software used all over the 
world:


             1.  The copyright clause in the US constitution says, that 
"To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for 
limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their 
respective Writings and Discoveries."  Virtually all the changes in 
copyright law over the past 40 years have violated this purpose, 
extending the copyright period from a max of 28 years to 99 and 
essentially infinite, and broadening the range of application to 
"derivative works" with such vague language as to give the major media 
conglomerates legal grounds for SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit against Public 
Participation) suits against potential competitors.  My primary 
reference on copyright law is the Wikipedia article on "Free Culture 
(book)".  The industry successfully sued lawyers who represented MP3 and 
venture capitalists supporting Napster on questionable grounds with the 
sole purpose reducing competition to the major media conglomerates.  The 
industry won, because the lawyers and venture capitalists knew that they 
could not afford the legal fees to fight the cases because the copyright 
laws were too vague;  they settled out of court.  This and other actions 
have a chilling effect on creativity.  Lessig in "Free Culture" claims 
the first commercially successful Mickey Mouse cartoon movie, "Steamboat 
Willie", might not have been produced under current copyright law, 
because that cartoon might have been considered a "derivative work" of a 
Buster Keaton film, "Steamboat Bill, Jr.", produced earlier that year.  
The most dynamic comics industry in the world is in Japan, because the 
Japanese simply refuse to use the existing copyright law (written to 
comply with international norms established essentially be US law).


             2.  Virtually 100% of the application of current US 
copyright law to technical articles violates the provisions of the US 
constitution "to promote the progress of science and useful arts".  I'm 
an author on 30 published technical papers.  I was required to transfer 
the copyright to the publisher for the vast majority of those in 
exchange only for the privilege of seeing the work published.  That made 
sense prior to the Internet.  It no longer makes sense, even for 
archives of journals published prior to the Internet.  These could be 
digitized at a relatively low one-time cost and made available to the 
world for free.  They aren't, because US copyright law is outdated and 
maintained by the legalized bribery of our current system of private 
financing political campaigns in the US.


             3.  I've received small royalty payments for one of the 2 
books.  The royalty is nice, but it's so small, it was NOT even 
considered in my decision on whether to write that book.  The only 
reason I agreed to have the book published by Springer was because they 
have established distribution processes.  I would have preferred web 
publishing, but my lead co-author had a relationship with Springer, so I 
didn't fight that.  However, again, the my motivation in producing that 
work was unrelated to what the publishers tell congress about that, and 
the copyright violates the constitutional purpose of copyright law.


             4.  Popular textbooks may be different:  I don't know for 
sure, but I believe that the royalties from popular textbooks for 
established technical authors can be substantial and can encourage the 
production of such textbooks.  However, Wikiversity provides a platform 
for collaborative production of training materials under the Creative 
Commons attribution share-alike license.  Wikimedia projects include a 
feature to "Create a book":  Any prof can create the book they want from 
established content in Wikimedia projects tailored to what they think 
should be taught.  Profs all over the world collaborate to create that 
content.  This is a mechanism for providing access to the best available 
knowledge selected by local profs that does not rely on established book 
publishers, which justify huge royalties based on the relatively low 
production volumes.  Once again, we don't need to pay individual authors 
to write popular textbooks:  We can get better textbooks from committees 
of profs teaching similar material all over the world, kept as current 
as profs can keep themselves current.  And again, the constitutional 
purpose for copyright law is violated but too a lesser extent than for 
published technical papers and research monographs.


       Thanks for organizing this event.  Feel free to quote me if you 
think it could be useful.


       Spencer


On 4/25/2013 10:51 PM, perrysandy at aol.com wrote:
> *frE uR tXbk$!*
> *A2K: **Access**to Knowledge***
> "Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to 
> keep it for themselves. The world's cultural heritage ... locked up by 
> a handful of private corporations ... The *Open Access Movement *has 
> fought valiantly to allow anyone to access it."
> -- *Aaron Swartz 1986 -- 2013, A2K hero & martyr.*
> *May Day A2K!*
> *A2K = a human right*
> On May Day the traditional celebration day for liberation join *DR. 
> CRYSTALLEE CRAIN*, and DA Student Trustee *VINCE MENDOZA, *to learn 
> about De Anza Student Advocacy Group's work on
> *OER (Open Educational Resources)*
> *TIME: Wed. May 1 from 1:30 -- 3:30 pm*
> *PLACE: Student Center Conference Room A*
> Sponsors:*DA GREEN PARTY CLUB***
> Institute of Community and Civic Engagement
> Office of Equity, Social Justice and Multicultural Education
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> sosfbay-discuss mailing list
> sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org
> http://lists.cagreens.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sosfbay-discuss


-- 
Spencer Graves, PE, PhD
President and Chief Technology Officer
Structure Inspection and Monitoring, Inc.
751 Emerson Ct.
San José, CA 95126
ph:  408-655-4567
web:  www.structuremonitoring.com

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