Lynne Jolitz , CTO of ExecProducer, writes about the role of copyright and fair use on the Internet discussed in the book "Free Culture" by Larry Lessig of Stanford Law School. The book review, appearing in the September 2004 edition of Dr. Dobbs Journal, is discussed in Lynne Jolitz DDJ Review of Lessig Free Culture .
ExecProducer CTO Lynne Greer Jolitz noted the conflict between intellectual property protection and fair use for many years.
"I recall many years ago, back when the Internet was an academic playground and the concept of open source had yet to coalesce into a real viable market force, a crazy guy by the name of Thomas Dolby (the songwriter, not the engineer) spoke in North Gate Hall at Berkeley about his vision of the future of the Internet. Dolby, enraptured by the power of the Internet to communicate instantly anywhere in the world even before the "web" existed, saw the Internet as an ideal way to free the artist from the stifling control of record distributors and middlemen - to speak (and sell) to their fans directly, with no compromise to mass tastes, and in turn, feed greater artistic creativity. The Internet, in sum, would become the wellspring for a new era of artistic freedom."
"A call to action is a noble aim, but I've always been somewhat suspicious of such aims "blinding me with science", and in true "Niels Bohr" fashion I asked what I thought to be an obvious question: "The Internet wasn't designed for the control of digital works - quite the opposite really. Who is going to change the Internet to allow the artist to control and maintain artistic integrity of his works and still profit by them, while reaching only the fans who desire them?" He flippantly answered, "Well, you're the technologists - you figure it out".
Ms. Jolitz smiles as she recalled the arrogance of another age. "You know, I'm still trying to figure it out".
Larry Lessig's book as discussed in Lynne Jolitz DDJ Review of Lessig Free Culture has provoked much commentary on the role of copyright and fair use in the Internet age, not just for media and entertainment, but even for arcane areas like open source. Ms. Jolitz discusses the topical impact of SCO's views versus Lessig's views in A Tale of Two Opinions.