Linking and Copyrights: Not So Simple

Cory Doctorow posted 'Fake "no-linking" copyright law breaks Wikipedia ' on the BoingBoing website. Cory writes of the linking to questionably copyrighted material:

...Even worse is the chilling effect on people who write the Web, the fear that they're going to come under a legal hammer unless they validate the copyright status of every link they make (imagine if Google held itself to this standard! No Blogger, no search-results, no Google Groups)...

Err. Cory. Are you not up to date with the Google copyright deal with the people who make more than waffles? Admittedly, I'm not a person who craves the news of Belgium as much (unless they're playing in the World Cup) - but the particular case is interesting to follow in that it asserts rights of creators of content in how their content is aggregated.

When it comes to copyright, patent and trademark laws - the world can be a scary place for people who are uncertain of copyright claims and the potential for copyright disputes. How we picture the world should be is maybe a way to shape the reality of the world into what we wish - but it is not always the way we think it should be at the moment. Remember that odd phrase, 'deep linking'?

The balance of creator rights and consumer rights gets really muddled when a consumer can resell the creations. It's even become an issue within SecondLife, where people often resell items which are given away by creators at no cost. All of this could probably be avoided by the obtaining of permissions, but frankly - we're swimming in infoglut when it comes to material on the internet. The scarey part is that only 16.7% of the world is online as of 2006. Can you imagine what will happen when we're at about 80%?

The policies really have to be looked at. I advocate Open Content, but I'm not going to run around pointing a lawyer (the weapon of choice these days) at people's heads when they don't believe in open content. Everyone's rights have to be acknowledged somehow, and all the stabs at it have just left the issue hemmorhaging slowly from papercuts.

A real international conversation needs to be had by creators - not publishers, but creators. Ultimately, the people who create are the ones who assign rights - be it to publishers or directly to users. Wearing our peril-sensitive sunglasses and using Somebody Else's Problem field technology does not make this matter go away, no matter how much moral fiber you had for breakfast. A constant eye to what is happening with copyright and patents at an international level is necessary.