LISNews: Librarian News

Siva Vaidhyanathan, author of Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How It Threatens Creativity holds forth on just that in today\'s
Wired News:

\"It\'s hard to ask people to pay attention to the state of music in America right now,\" Vaidhyanathan said. \"However, the larger issue is about the richness of our democratic culture.\"

As more and more \"speech\" goes digital and as those digits get locked down with increasingly stronger clickwrap -- copyright and copy protection measures -- speech faces the very impediments the Constitution\'s framers took pains to avoid, Vaidhyanathan says.

\"It\'s very clear that reckless copyright enforcement can chill speech,\" he said. \"The message of my book is that we\'ve gone too far. There are ways in which the copyright system becomes an engine for democratic culture. But once you increase the protection to an absurd level, you end up having a negative effect on this process.\"

More. Sample chapters from Vaidhyanathan\'s new book are available at his homepage.