« MediaCon: A view from down under | Main | MediaCon: criticism growning »

binary "thought": Bruce Lehman

May 12, 2003 8:04 AM - comments (2)

Bruce Lehman -- the Clinton Administration's IP czar and a debate no-show (he's scheduled and not shown at at least two debates that I know of -- one with Jamie Boyle, and one with me) -- has been doing more good in the world. As reported in Technology Review and commented upon at TeleRead, when a Cairo consortium called WIPO to ask for advice about images of Egyptian artifacts that they wanted to place on the web, Lehman's new international organization sent a lawyer to Cairo to advise them against spreading such knowledge freely. Better to copyright and control access to such knowledge. The images, he is reported to have said, "should be licensed."

We'd suggest a Creative Commons license, or at least some way to keep Mr. Lehman at home.

Posted on May 12, 2003 8:04 AM | | technorati

Comments (2)

May 12, 2003 9:08 AM tarun:

The CCL is perfect for this situation, maybe a require attribution clause form. I just find it scary that knowledge is being locked up in smaller and smaller boxes, hemmed in with legal language and bounty hunter attorneys armed with Cease and Desist letters.

While I certainly believe that those photos need some form of legal protection, if only the protect someone else from claiming them, the museum should ask what their goal in providing these images are and act accordingly. If it is something like "providing for the legacy of humanity" or "education and preservation" then certainly there is no harm in releasing the photos under CCL. However, if they have other goals, then maybe they should reconsider the museum business.

February 23, 2004 5:24 PM sandy:

Call 604-301-0370 for a good time

Post a comment

By entering the words in the box, you are also helping to digitize texts that were written before the computer age. The words that you see were taken directly from old texts that are being scanned and stored by the Internet Archive. This CAPTCHA helps proofread the books. If the sample is too hard to read, click the recycle button to get another two. A space between each word is required. And thanks for the comment and help.