p2pnet - rss feed: Captain Copyright apologists
p2pnet.net News View:- Access Copyright has added a note about Statement Regarding Captain Copyright on their home page.
It’s interesting how, after presenting such a one-sided and in a number of cases factually incorrect political view of copyright, claiming it was “education”, that they’re suggesting they were surprised at the reaction.
They did state that, “We are taking action to make these improvements, and one of the first things we have done is to invite organizations with differing perspectives on copyright issues to participate in the process”.
It’ll be interesting to see how well they incorporate those different perspectives, including competitors to Access Copyrights’ business model of collecting royalty payments for all possible uses.
Examples include the Open Access, Creative Commons, and FLOSS communities.
Some members of this growing creative community only charge for the initial up-front development costs, harnessing the fact that the marginal cost of production for creativity is zero, and never charge anyone royalty fees for any use.
Note: Access Copyright’s website currently seems to require JavaScript be enabled to work. Technical people may find it interesting to view the message that the site returns when you use the Lynx browser, software which is popular in the blind community.
Russell McOrmond - p2pnet contributing editor
[McOrmond is an independent author (software and non-software) who uses modern business models and licensing (Free/Libre and Open Source Software, Creative Commons). He’s also the CLUE policy coordinator.]
[Here’s what the creators of the appalling Captain Copyright had to say - Ed]
Statement Regarding Captain Copyright
Earlier this year Access Copyright launched a website directed at Canadian educators to help them teach their students about copyright. Because copyright has become a high-profile topic over the past few years, this website also attracted the attention of many people outside of the educational community and as a result we have received a great deal of feedback, both positive and negative, regarding the site and its contents. We take all of this feedback seriously.
The Captain Copyright site was created for educators because they told us through surveys and focus groups conducted by an independent consultant that they needed tools to help them teach their students about copyright. Educators felt it was an increasingly important topic for their students to understand, but there were no materials available to them to build this understanding. The educational tools that were subsequently developed were created to address this gap, and the response from educators to date has been very positive.
The site was launched as a pilot project in February and not widely promoted so that we could assess the feedback we received and add to or refine the materials. Access Copyright’s intention has always been to present a neutral and balanced view of copyright with these materials and it is unfortunate that some feel we have not met this goal. We have given very careful consideration to the criticisms we’ve received and we have learned a great deal from this experience, including what we can do to improve this tool for educators. We are taking action to make these improvements, and one of the first things we have done is to invite organizations with differing perspectives on copyright issues to participate in the process.
We have already secured a number of subject matter experts and educators to serve on an advisory panel to review and revise the existing Captain Copyright materials, as well as assist with the creation of new materials focusing on topics such as the Creative Commons, fair dealing, and the public domain. One organization, the Canadian Library Association, has, unfortunately, declined our invitation to work with us on making these improvements and has chosen instead to publicly condemn the site. Access Copyright has nothing but respect for the CLA and its members, so we are saddened that the CLA has chosen not to work with us on improving the site and materials for educators.
We are also saddened by the misconceptions that have been perpetuated regarding our web linking policy. We want to be absolutely clear that is was never the purpose of the policy to limit debate regarding copyright or criticism of Access Copyright. The purpose of the policy was to protect children from inappropriate content by restricting the types of sites that could link to the Captain Copyright materials. While we have seen similar language in, for example, the policies of school boards, we acknowledge that it was not clear in this case, so we have hired a law firm with expertise in this area to review and revise the policy.
A great deal of work has gone into acting on the feedback we have received and there is still more to be done before we re-launch the site and distribute the revised lesson plan kits that have been requested by educators from across the country. We have repeated our invitation to the Canadian Library Association to be a part of this work and to help us ensure a balanced perspective on copyright is presented. We will continue to work to meet this goal, and a revised website and materials that represent all perspectives on copyright issues will be available to educators later this year.
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August 14th, 2006 at 8:31 pm
Captain Copyright flew to Literati X’s home and eXplained the penalties
when Big Music fail to get the proper permission (s): even though it’s a
trillion dollar DRM misunderstanding–accidental spoken X eXplosion,
Literati can still consolidate with the industry and grow with giants. . .