DISQUS

Thanks for this post! This is extremely relevant to some papers I'm trying to write for my Telecom Policy class and my Technology, Terrorism & Nat'l Security class.... I'm still figuring exactly what the topics are going to be, but I want to write about how we can get closer to the cyberutopian ideal in the real world of today. If communications networks aren't necessarily bringing greater freedom to people, like behind the great firewall of China, then maybe we're doing something wrong, or not doing enough.

In the last line, you mean Sunstein, not Sunstain. I would expect a sunstain to be something like a sunspot, only more permanent.

The conflict between freedom of expression and copyrights is the reason the "fair use" doctrine exists. It is essential for freedom of speech to be able to sometimes use copyrighted works without the permission of the original author, because otherwise it is very difficult to criticize those works and have an informed public debate.

What I don't understand is why we accept quoting of paragraphs of text without permission to be fair use, but copyright holders flip out when someone quotes an audio or video clip without permission. The medium should not make a difference, and if we have fewer freedoms in new media than we had with the written word, then creativity and democracy will suffer.