Talking Copyrights And Technology In DC

Techdirt

from the going-to-DC dept

The folks at the CATO Institute in Washington DC have invited me to participate in a half-day event they’re putting on next week called: Copyright Controversies: Freedom, Property, Content Creation, and the DMCA. Considering how rare it seems for the policy people to discuss some of this stuff with folks from the industry who are not representing a huge corporate interest, it seemed like it would be fun and quite educational for me. All three panels look to have interesting speakers. The panel I’m on will be moderated by Kevin Maney from USA Today, which should be great as he’s spent time in the past digging into some of the more important issues surrounding copyright. On the panel with me will be Gregory Lastowka, who is coming out with a paper called “Amateur to Amateur: The Rise of a New Creative Culture.” I’ve read over a draft and it does a great job bringing to light an aspect of the copyright/technology debate that is way too often ignored: the fact that big copyright firms aren’t the ones producing the important content online and bowing down to their needs doesn’t make much sense. The other panelist will be Patrick Ross from the Progress and Freedom Foundation. Ross, you may recall, is the guy who once claimed that fair use stifles innovation. So, as you might imagine, it should be quite a bit of fun to discuss his views on copyright. The event is next Wednesday in DC. If you’re in the area, come on out.