Archive for May, 2005

17 MayPatry on the Anti-Bootlegging Statute

William Patry, one of the drafters of 17 U.S.C. 1101 and 18 U.S.C. 2319A, the civil and criminal provisions, respectively, of the “anti-bootlegging” statute, has a post on his blog defending the constitutionality of these statutes, both of which have recently been ruled unconstitutional, one by a district court in California (Kiss Catalog v. Passport Productions) and the other by a district court in New York (US v. Martignon).

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Patry points out that the live musical performers granted rights under these statutes are engaged in commerce. No one doubts that musical artists are engaged in commerce, often even interstate commerce. But so is virtually every other copyright holder and we haven’t taken that as a reason to ignore the Progress Clause‘s limitations or as a reason to let the Commerce Clause swallow the Progress Clause’s field of application.

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He also accuses Judge Baer, author of the Martignon opinion, of contradicting himself. I’d be pleased if Patry could clear up another contradiction: 2319A adopts the (C) Act’s definition of “fixed” and the (C) Act defines works as “fixed” “when its embodiment in a copy or phonorecord, by or under the authority of the author, is sufficiently permanent or stable to permit it to be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated for a period of more than transitory duration.” So this means that to be “fixed” you have to be “authorized”. Nonetheless 2319A speaks of “unauthorized fixations” which translates to “unauthorized authorized embodiments”, i.e., it explicitly contradicts itself. What’s going on there?

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Patry writes, “The reach of the Copyright Clause stops at the fixation door: it doesn’t expressly or impliedly swing open to things that aren’t fixed.” That is where we simply disagree. Patry doesn’t address the arguments to the contrary.

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With respect to live musical performances, the Law Professors’ Brief in the Martignon appeal provides three options: 1) They are writings and hence are governed by the Progress Clause. (One famous treatise author holds this view.) 2) They are not writings and hence are not governed by the Progress Clause. (This is the position taken by the Government in the Martignon appeal and also apparently Patry’s view. The Profs. point out that one who takes this position must respond to the First Amendment concerns that such a sweeping regulation of speech poses. Patry doesn’t do this.) 3) The Professors instead suggest that they are not Writings, and hence cannot be given copyright or copyright-like protection, but they are nonetheless governed by the Progress Clause and its limitations because that Clause governs all legislation that would regulate original creative expression.

The last seems to me the best view. It may well imply that much legislation, such as the anti-bootlegging statute, is unconstitutional. It may also mean that much more state regulation of original creative expression is preempted than we currently recognize. I don’t think those are problems with the view. Rather, I think they are some of the better features of the view. Not because I care about bootleggers, but because it will provide for a more balanced “intellectual property” landscape, one where the limitations of the Progress Clause will keep us in check and prevent us from being tempted to over-expand perpetual rights that don’t actually benefit society.

As an aside, Mr. Patry spends some time discussing the drafters’ intent to legislate under the Commerce Clause. I’d be pleased for him to actually cite to the legislative history that demonstrates this intent. So far no one has actually provided a citation, and all the comments on the floor of Congress suggest instead that members, at least, believed they were enacting Copyright legislation. (However, we should keep in mind, as Patry also notes, that this is irrelevant to the statute’s constitutionality).

Update May 19:The Conversation Continues…

Cross-posted to bIPlog.

06 MayBroadcast Flag Struck Down!

I awoke this morning and confirmed with FedEx and UPS that the last of my components for my broadcast-flag-busting MythTV PVR would arrive today. Then I learned that the American Library Association, EFF, and Public Knowledge had won their court case challenging the FCC’s authority to issue technology mandates such as the broadcast flag! Here’s the unanimous 3-0 34-page opinion (pdf) from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. The court wrote, “we hold that the Commission acted outside the scope of its delegated authority when it adopted the disputed broadcast flag regulations.” at p. 4. For the challenge to succeed, the court had to find that someone challenging the flag stood to suffer actual harm. The court wrote, “faculty members make broadcast clips available to students in distance education courses via the Internet, but there is a substantial probability that the Libraries will be unable to do this if the Flag Order takes effect. It is also beyond dispute that, if this court vacates the Flag Order, the Libraries will be able to continue to assist faculty members lawfully redistribute broadcast clips to their students.” at p. 14. This is a great victory. Brace yourselves for the MPAA to go to Congress to ask them to either give the FCC the authority this court held they lacked or to enact a flag directly. You’ll probably want to donate to EFF and Public Knowledge. Don’t forget to hug a librarian today.

05 MayTo Whom Is Free Software Relevant?

r0ml writes,

Availability of the source code is probably only relevant to computer programmers. After all, if you aren’t a programmer, what would you do with source code? In which case, a freely copyable binary would be equivalent to freely copyable source code. The ability to do something with the source code (i.e. to create a derivative work), is something only a programmer could do. Strikes me as the definition of a programmer. Yes, I know that benefits might accrue to the non-programmer indirectly, but conceding that there are no direct benefits to most people doesn’t seem like a great debating point.

We know that only 2.4% of the population are employed in “computer and mathematical occupations”. Which would seem to put an upper bound on the number of people to whom Free and Open Source Software would be relevant. And any movement which can only possibly be relevant to such a small fraction of the population is going to have difficulty garnering widespread support, or even interest.

While I am interested in the topic he goes on to discuss later, whether or not universal programming literacy ought to be a goal of our society, I think these first paragraphs go too far.

Availability of source code is extremely relevant to the non-programmer. The most important example of why is vendor lock-in, a serious problem with proprietary software, and nearly impossible with free software.

If I have to use a piece of software, either to operate this blog or to run part of my business, and I have a choice between a proprietary program (or even a no-cost binary provided without source) where any problems I have can only be solved by the software’s author, who is the only person with source code access, versus a piece of free software where I have access to the source code, and even though not a programmer myself, where I can hire any competent programmer to solve my problems with the software for me, I would, other things being equal, always choose the latter.

Free software creates a competitive market in software services because the code is available for anyone to examine and modify. That means even if I myself can’t modify it to any useful effect, I can at least enter a competitive marketplace of those who can. With proprietary software if I want my problem solved, and if I’m not an important enough customer I may even be ignored. If they are willing to help me, then the proprietary software owner can charge monopoly prices for the fix I want.

This reason alone makes free software extremely relevant to the non-programmer. It removes the proposed upper-bound on to whom free software is relevant, and gives a good reason why free software is having no problem garnering widespread support and interest. I don’t expect that I have to explain this to r0ml, but as I said, those two paragraphs seemed to overstate the situation.