UT pays bookstore to showcase work - Top Stories

This article in Friday's Daily Texan, UT pays bookstore to showcase work - Top Stories, reminds me that the period of transition is going to be a long one. Professors still want to publish a book and UT wants to give them a place to showcase it, for students to buy it, for discussions about it to take place. I wonder to what extent any of the authors mentioned in this story are engaging their audiences on the Web, positioning their writings for conversation there? Let's see...

Patrick McGrath? Not that I can find, though he's well known and established. He's described in the Bloomsbury site as a guest lecturer here at UT, but he's not talking with his audience on the Web apparently.

Antony Hopkins? Department of History, UT, actually has his own website, but does not appear to be talking on the Web with his audience.

Also mentioned in the story are two assistant professors in the English department, James Cox and Neville Hoad. Neither of them appears to have an interactive presence on the Web.

I certainly understand the University's wanting to promote the writings of its authors, but I think it could do more by encouraging them to look to the future of the book as much as to its present. Unless they are planning to retire from writing in the next couple of years, they should do themselves a favor and look around, smell the java ...

Enhancing your visit to my blog

I've had enough time in these last few weeks to explore the world of bling for blogs, as it was referred to in a nice NYT article yesterday. So I have added a few features to my blog, things that I hope will give readers more information when they visit. For example, I added a feature that shows the Web pages I'm bookmarking on del.icio.us. These sites are tagged and annotated to give you a better feel for what you're likely to find there of interest.
I also added a feature that shows the posts from the blogs I've read recently that I think might be of interest. My rss reader is Google Reader. This is a feature Google Reader provides.
There are lots of other features that can be added as the NYT article shows. But school has started, and my blog enhancing days are numbered for awhile. Posting every couple of days will be attention enough. There has to be some plain ol' fun in all of this, right?

Gadgets as tyrants -- or is it content owners as tyrants?

Today in the NYT, there's an article about the Las Vegas consumer electronics show in which the author complains about drm limiting freedom to use media on devices as the consumer wishes. Of course, this is interesting to me and to many people I know, including Peg O'Donnell, who created and updates the legal office's Web site for Catholic University in D.C. So she's posting a link to the article on the Web site. Straightforward enough, but the cool thing is that 3 months ago I wouldn't have had a clue about how to do this, that it was even do-able, and I certainly wouldn't have been able to show anyone else how to do it, and most of all, blog about it. Not that it's earth-shattering. But it's just so wonderful to have the time and the inclination, and the structure of a course of study that really requires that I engage technologies, information, and learn in these ways. It's at times daunting. Sometimes I am a bit overwhelmed. But it's just intrinsically exciting.

Tomorrow is first day of class

And we're off --

Another semester starts tomorrow. I'm ready for the whirlwind this time, at least I know what to expect. I've got both my ischool schedules scoped out. One of the classes is about organizing and providing access to information (what used to be cataloging, but isn't anymore); the other is about digitization. Both fairly technical, but both squarely touching on the themes I am getting more into: what changes does the fully networked environment presage for the book, the publishing industry, the library. And, of course, how is the way we are handling this different from the way it's being handled in other parts of the world.

I spend a lot of time over the last couple of weeks reading blogs, news reports, conference papers, books, and really, anything that touched on these themes. There is so much out there once you get started looking. Thank God it's so incredibly interesting, downright fascinating, or I would be overwhelmed. The only thing that's overwhelming right now is the thought that I have to narrow down my interest at some point. I can't imagine how on earth I could do that, but I know I will.

As for french, I've been listening to the audio that accompanies my book, am listening to rfi and tele 5, reading the text of the book and an occasional news feed (I get my Google news in french), so I'm prepared for that too. Hopefully I'll be able to attend le cercle francais this semester to add an additional hour each week to my practice schedule.

So, if it weren't freezing right now and raining, thus making it iffy whether classes will actually go forward tomorrow (UT will call the shots on this early in the a.m. they say), I would be more excited about it, but as it is, it's really Wednesday that I'll have my first class, the digitization class. So, 1 down, 6 or 7 to go...

One more week of break

The highs and lows of academic life are such a trip. Keeps reminding me of the line from desperado, "you're losing all your highs and lows, aint it funny how the feeling goes away..." Highs and lows are really exciting. Smooth sailing (routine) seems to lead to boredom and stagnation eventually. So with academe, the highs I'm talking about are the speed-demon pace and accomplishment of the semester, and the lows are the relaxed, laid-back pace of the "intermissions," as well as its more modest accomplishments. Actually, the relaxed pace is its own kind of high -- when you can get up in the morning, spend awhile out on your deck sipping a cup of coffee and just looking at how glorious the world can be on a sunny morning, amble back inside and read a few emails, wander around on the Internet for an hour or two, grab some lunch, read a chapter in a book, run an errand, make a few phone calls, and then make dinner, etc. etc. Day after day. It's easy to forget what it's like to be able to just be.

So, this is the last week of this part of the trip. I did actually make a list of the things that were most important for me to accomplish before the semester begins, since I know how little other than school I'll be able to focus on once the semester gets underway. So I kept to a schedule of sorts this week and will continue to do so through Monday of next week. I'm making steady progress on these things -- reading and creating a bibliography for the research I want to do on French libraries (contrasting their views of the future with those of US libraries), a paper I was invited to co-author on fair use in digital image libraries for architecture schools, a talk I'm scheduled to give on digital distribution in February, stuff like that, a short talk I'm giving to faculty at UT on library services (scholarly communication & copyright). All very interesting, but I'm also still working on Benkler's book. Really need to finish it before Tuesday or I won't finish it for 3 more months...

I also will be starting on a new blog in about 3 weeks. The University of Maryland, University College Center for Intellectual Property & Copyright is launching a blog for its visiting scholar (moi) and I'll get to play around there for a bit each week, invite others to play too (visiting bloggers) , and in general, try to keep on top of things slightly outside my academic interests. Don't want to get too narrowly focused, at least not yet.

So, I'm off to take a video break, episodes 9, 10 and 11 of the first season of The Wire. I don't watch much tv (actually no tv, except when Dennis is around), so I didn't learn about the wire for several years. I am so out of it when it comes to tv. I just hate commercials and they drive me away from the medium. I know, not all stations have commercials, but sitting in front of a little box with flashing lights and sounds is not my idea of a good time. There are exceptions, of course. And I love wandering around on the Internet... Enough of this rambling.

Of the case for fair use: digital distribution of course materials: summary of approaches to fair use

Summary of Approaches to Fair Use Analysis

We have discussed five approaches to fair use analysis. It is my conclusion that even the most lenient approach will offer little support for fair use Electronic Distribution in today's courtrooms.

1. Strict logical construction: in this case the court would accept as fair use those uses where the first three factors favored fair use in the nonprofit educational context, ignoring all evidence of harm to markets as logically irrelevant insofar as it represents payments that are not due if a use is fair, and so cannot be presumed “lost” because of the use unless it is otherwise determined to be unfair. Williams & Wilkins illustrates this approach.

2. Creative destruction: in this case the court would accept as fair use those uses where the consumers of copyrighted works are funding the making and distribution of the copies in question, and creation of the works in question does not depend on sales of copies.

3. Sony traditional revenues only: in this case, the court would accept as fair use only those uses that provide a clear social benefit, and when weighing the social benefit against the harms to the copyright owner, the court would limit the relevant market to current revenue streams.

4. Market dysfunction (broad interpretation of market failure): in this case the court would accept as fair use those uses that demonstrate market failure due to high transaction costs or market dysfunction due to inability to pay – inability to internalize social benefits or monetize a party’s interests; the relevant market would be both current and future revenue streams that might exist if the court finds for the copyright owners. No court has taken this approach.

5. Strict interpretation market failure: in this case, the court would accept as fair use only those uses that demonstrate near total and likely continuing failure of the market due to high transaction costs; the relevant market would be both current and future revenues that might exist if the court finds for the copyright owners. Texaco illustrates this approach where the use was not found to be fair; more recent cases involving Internet search engines (Kelly v. Arriba Soft & Google v. Field) illustrate this approach where the use was found to be fair.

Sony and creative destruction both offer fairly aggressive arguments for fair use. Creative destruction would even legitimize unauthorized peer-to-peer (p2p) music file sharing. In fact, that is exactly what Ku argues: that p2p file sharing has creatively destroyed the market for CD distribution because individuals make their own copies and pay for the distribution network themselves (computers, peripherals, ISP service).[1] Further, sales of copies are in fact notoriously not a source of income for most musicians.[2] One can also identify this phenomenon at work much earlier with respect to sheet music and the advent of photocopying. So, for example, a court using this analysis could find under the fourth factor that p2p file sharing of music does not harm the market for or value of copyrighted recordings.[3]

Ku assumed that courts were more likely to implement creative destruction than the legislature would be to reform copyright law by placing a limit embodying this theory on copyright owners’ exclusive rights. Recent cases involving p2p issues would cast considerable doubt on this likelihood, however, because all have assumed that direct copying by p2p software users is infringing, including the Supreme Court in the recent case of MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd.[4]

Moreover, it seems unlikely that Electronic Distribution would qualify broadly as fair under creative destruction analysis. Creative destruction characterizes as fair those uses 1) where the user makes his own copies and pays for the distribution system, and 2) where revenues from the sale of copies is not required to fund the creation of the works the user copies. That description does not currently characterize all of the materials that educators must use in teaching. Scholarly articles arguably fit the description, though there would no doubt be argument to the contrary. Textbook and trade book publishers would vigorously refute the characterization.

Perhaps the market dysfunction argument, creatively and thoughtfully applied, is at least a possibility, but as indicated earlier, its advocates would have to define the subtle contours of a very challenging argument.

Finally, the circularity argument will likely fail, as indicated above, because it can so easily be gotten around by manipulating the first three factors to favor getting permission, thus eliminating the appearance of “… converting an otherwise fair use into an infringing one.”

If posting articles or book chapters for students to read over successive semesters would likely fail to qualify as fair use under every theory of fair use including the “strict logic” circularity approach to the fourth factor, how do we reasonably defend it? And what are the implications of such a likely failure for fair use policy? In general, how do we defend policies that describe a scope for fair use significantly beyond its likely interpretation in courts today?

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[1] Shih Ray Ku, Consumers and creative destruction, 565 - 566.

[2] Ku, p. 567.

[3] Id.

[4] MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd., ___ U.S. ___ (2005). See also, Napster and Aimster, cited elsewhere within.

Benkler's The Wealth of Networks

I have 2 weeks of holiday break left. This is such an incredible thing, to have 6 weeks off during winter. I've gotten so many things done, as well as had plenty of time to just think about things. What a great idea, time off.

I started Benkler's Wealth of Networks a couple of days ago as part of the exploration I'm doing for the course I want to create on the future of the book. It's a bit far afield, especially given how long it is (couldn't likely assign it, but might certainly make it optional or recommended reading). It's online as well as in analog, so I can cut and paste the passages that are particularly resonant into EverNote for later use. I'm also getting started on a bibliography in Noodlebib for the course. I can annotate each entry as well as make notes to myself about each book and include quotes. The tools I've learned about in the Knowledge Management Course are really phenomenally useful. It's just such a shame that most working folk don't have the time to figure out how to make more of their time...

The one place I'm not making progress is on lining up the people I want to interview next summer in France. I keep feeling that I need to know more before I select the people, and I need to know more before I can come up with the right questions to ask them. All of this is true, but I don't have forever to figure it out. Reservations have to be made, appointments have to be arranged. I really have to just take a leap in some ways. I need to go by gut instinct here, sort of a Blink kind of thing maybe. Since I have to accomplish this outside the structure of a course, I don't have the advantage that course requirements would impose on my efforts. I have to be my own taskmaster on this. That would normally not be a problem, but the course requirements will squeeze out just about everything that isn't absolutely necessary once the semester gets going, so I will really have to make the most of the next couple of weeks before the crush is on.

It's been so nice though, to have the rhythm of the day be my own. Ah, life.