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<div class="moz-cite-prefix"> 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: <br>
<br>
<br>
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). <br>
<br>
<br>
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. <br>
<br>
<br>
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. <br>
<br>
<br>
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. <br>
<br>
<br>
Thanks for organizing this event. Feel free to quote me if
you think it could be useful. <br>
<br>
<br>
Spencer <br>
<br>
<br>
On 4/25/2013 10:51 PM, <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:perrysandy@aol.com">perrysandy@aol.com</a> wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:8D0105936CFE070-2214-149E7@webmail-m167.sysops.aol.com"
type="cite"><font size="2" color="black" face="arial"><font
style="background-color: transparent;" face="Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">
</font>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><b
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span
style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 72pt;"><font
face="Calibri">frE uR tXbk$!<o:p></o:p></font></span></b></div>
<font size="3" face="Times New Roman">
</font>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><font
face="Calibri"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span
style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 36pt;">A2K: </span></b><b
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span
style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 24pt;">Access</span></b><b
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span
style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 36pt;"> to
Knowledge</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size:
72pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></font></div>
<font size="3" face="Times New Roman">
</font>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><font
size="3"><font face="Calibri">“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 <b
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Open
Access Movement </b>has fought valiantly to allow
anyone to access it.”<o:p></o:p></font></font></div>
<font size="3" face="Times New Roman">
</font>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 2.5in;
text-indent: 0.5in;"><font size="3"><font face="Calibri"><span
style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>– <b
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Aaron
Swartz 1986 – 2013, A2K hero & martyr.<o:p></o:p></b></font></font></div>
<font size="3" face="Times New Roman">
</font>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;
text-align: center;" align="center"><b
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span
style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 36pt;"><font
face="Calibri">May Day A2K!<o:p></o:p></font></span></b></div>
<font size="3" face="Times New Roman">
</font>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;
text-align: center;" align="center"><b
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span
style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 36pt;"><font
face="Calibri">A2K = a human right<o:p></o:p></font></span></b></div>
<font size="3" face="Times New Roman">
</font>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><font
size="3"><font face="Calibri">On May Day the traditional
celebration day for liberation
join <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">DR.
CRYSTALLEE CRAIN</b>, and DA Student
Trustee <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">VINCE
MENDOZA, </b>to learn
about De Anza Student Advocacy Group’s work on<o:p></o:p></font></font></div>
<font size="3" face="Times New Roman">
</font>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><b
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span
style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 24pt;"><font
face="Calibri">OER (Open Educational Resources)<o:p></o:p></font></span></b></div>
<font size="3" face="Times New Roman">
</font>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><b
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span
style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 24pt;"><font
face="Calibri">TIME: Wed. May 1 from 1:30 – 3:30 pm<o:p></o:p></font></span></b></div>
<font size="3" face="Times New Roman">
</font>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><b
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span
style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 24pt;"><font
face="Calibri">PLACE: Student Center Conference Room
A<o:p></o:p></font></span></b></div>
<font size="3" face="Times New Roman">
</font>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;
text-align: center;" align="center"><font face="Calibri"><font
size="3">Sponsors:</font><span style="line-height: 115%;
font-size: 36pt;"> </span><b
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span
style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 16pt;">DA GREEN
PARTY CLUB</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size:
36pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></font></div>
<font size="3" face="Times New Roman">
</font>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;
text-align: center;" align="center"><font size="3"><font
face="Calibri">Institute of
Community and Civic Engagement<o:p></o:p></font></font></div>
<font size="3" face="Times New Roman">
</font>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;
text-align: center;" align="center"><font size="3"><font
face="Calibri">Office of Equity,
Social Justice and Multicultural Education<o:p></o:p></font></font></div>
<font size="3" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font>
<br>
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<br>
<pre wrap="">_______________________________________________
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<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://lists.cagreens.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sosfbay-discuss">http://lists.cagreens.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sosfbay-discuss</a></pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
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: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.structuremonitoring.com">www.structuremonitoring.com</a>
</pre>
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