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Finland 28 April 2007 Mikael
Finland
28 April 2007
Mikael Böök
NLOCKING THE GLOBAL INFORMATION FORTRESS*
Some years ago, the copyright term was extended from 50 to 70 years. I was reminded of this, again, when I read the notes from our Ghanaian colleague (See Emmanuel Mensah Darkey, in a previous note on the Copy South Readers Response Project).
Why did WE let that happen?
Originally, there was no copyright at all. Then, at the moment of its invention under Queen Anne of England at the beginning of the 18th Century, the term was 14 years, which was later extended to 28 years.
I do not say that copyrights should be abolished altogether. What we have got now, however is totally absurd, especially so, in our age of the digital revolution and the internet.
The answer to the WHY is that WE have let ourselves be brainwashed and scared. Copyright does not belong to the basic human rights. It is like taxes, something which can and should be continually discussed and agreed upon in democratic ways. Let's have the term of copyrights shortened to 30 years for a change! And, in the case of educational textbooks, let's have textbooks which are Copyleft, that is, freely copyable. Copyrights and Author's rights are different matters. The Author's rights need to be respected, and in this case there should be no end to the terms. The Author of a work remains its author for ever.
Finally, let us not forget about Users' rights, because WE have a special responsibility to defend our own rights.
* This title is taken from a World Social Forum workshop held in Nairobi in January 2007. This is a slightly edition of a note previously posted at the email list lib-wsf@sympa.kaapeli.fi the majority of the 90 list members are university librarians from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.