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The Electronic Frontier Foundation Organizes Copyright Week

   January 15th, 2014

Copyright WeekIn case you missed it, this week (Jan 13-18, 2014) is Copyright Week. The EFF and partners are using this time, the week leading up the two-year anniversary of the SOPA blackout protests, to talk about the current trends in copyright, and what's at stake.

Read more here, but the real meat is at https://www.eff.org/copyrightweek - each day focuses on a single issue within the world of copyright, and they post resources related to that issue. Here's the topics:

  • Transparency
    Copyright policy must be set through a participatory, democratic and transparent process. It should not be decided through back room deals or secret international agreements.
  • Building and Defending a Robust Public Domain
    The public domain is our cultural commons and a public trust. Copyright policy should seek to promote, and not diminish, this crucial resource.
  • Open Access
    The results of publicly funded research should be made freely available to the public online, to be fully used by anyone, anywhere, anytime.
  • You Bought it, You Own It
    Copyright policy should foster the freedom to truly own your stuff: to tinker with it, repair it, reuse it, recycle it, read or watch or launch it on any device, lend it, and then give it away (or re-sell it) when you're done.
  • Fair Use Rights
    For copyright to achieve its purpose of encouraging creativity and innovation, it must preserve and promote ample breathing space for unexpected and innovative uses.
  • Getting Copyright Right
    A free and open Internet is essential infrastructure, fostering speech, activism, new creativity and new business models for artists, authors, musicians and other creators. It must not be sacrificed in the name of copyright enforcement.

So definitely, check it out - at least with a cursory glance to see what the top issues are.

Also related to copyright, I highly recommend following Alan Wexelblat's Copyfight blog. Alan provides great summaries (and details) of emerging issues and how they actually affect people.


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