LIS-3353 - Freely Available Information

Created Tuesday 19 October 2021

LIS-3353

Freely Available Art, Knowledge and Culture

read all the FSU rules and follow them...
--or maybe not..

Morals, Ethics, Law?

Morals, Ethics, Law?

I start here because, in this realm, there's a very very huge disjoint...

Morals, Ethics, Law?

Ideally: Morals → Ethics → Law.

Really, it's all over the place.

Influencers (there may be more)

“Micro”
needs, etiquette, psychology

“Macro”
Economics, religion, sociology
Code/Technology/Science
Law

Morals, Ethics, Law?

“The Lambchop Machine”

Morals, Ethics, Law?

“The Lambchop Machine”

When X is free, when is it appropriate, if ever, to deny X to someone?

Ownership /Property

- Simple, intuitively; 3 year olds understand it.

MINE!

Ownership /Property

But, consider the law(s) of:
Personal Property
Real Property
And later Intellectual Property

Property!

STILL, fundamentally about exclusion.
Which makes sense for “limited” stuff; but could be likened to a state-sponsored monopoly

Article I, Section 8, Clause 8

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.

“Intellectual” “Property”

Rewarding creators is a means to an end, not the end itself.

Intellectual? Property?

The words.

Intellectual Property

Consider the theory vs the practice;

What people THINK it is:

"I own that idea" or
"That idea is mine because I came up with it"

What people THINK it is:

"I own that idea" or
"That idea is mine because I came up with it"
technically has NO BASIS IN LAW, unless it fits the below
...but HOW MUCH DOES THAT MATTER?

Remember, the law only sets in:

When someone takes time out of their day to SUE YOU;

(Or perhaps to try to inform and/or scare you into some compliance)

For better or worse.

Intellectual Property

The weirdos

(not governed by the IP clause)

Trade Secret

Trademark

Trade Secret

“Privately held info that confers economic advantage or benefit”
Different from the others because ITS A SECRET. (think about it, the others are PUBLICLY KNOWN)
Must “make efforts to protect”
Perpetual
Something like a corporate right of privacy (and perhaps least controversial?)

Trademark

Different from the others in that it's not (theoretically) inherently valuable, but only symbolically
“Expresses Source of Origin”
Potentially perpetual
Can be a very wide range of “things”
(names, phrases, logos, even sounds, smells and colors)

Trademark

Mostly not too controversial, except:
Unfairly scoped and/or wielded (e.g. Sam Bucks Coffee?)
Weirdly Deceptive? (Famous Amos Cookies?)
And wait – what is FSU doing?

Trademark

Broadly, what is the relationship between TRADEMARK and BRANDING?
(weirder than you think)

Definitely Intellectual Property

Copyright
Patent

Patent (theory)

Protects inventions and ideas

Must be:

Theoretically Non-patentable

Naturally occuring things like – plants and algorithms.

BUT

Simply patent the “process”

Reverse Engineering v. Stealing?

Patent don't care.

This is why a lot of people oppose them CATEGORICALLY

Design Patent?

Weird, and you'll see them more soon, because of a shift from

- Deep descriptions
to
- General perception

Copyright

Automatic (Berne Convention)
but, must be registered to sue
“Expression of an idea”
Not infinite, but almost-- (70+life)

Fair Use

Fair Use (is weird)

(weird b/c “parody/satire”)
Effect on “value”

+ The “5th” measure. Is it icky or weird?

Software?

Patents didn't exist, now they do.

Consider browsers, theoretically?

Safari,Edge,Firefox,Chrome
vs.
BROWSERS

GPL

SO CLEVER.
"Copyleft"
It's not not copyright?

Who here owns Microsoft Software?

Who here owns Microsoft Software?

Trick Question

EULA

e.g.
- you may have one copy
- on one machine
- you may NOT take it apart
- you may not make copies for your friends

GPL

ALSO A LICENSE, but
- you may make copies
- you may take it apart
- you may make a copy for yourself and change it and NEVER give it away
- you may sell a copy* (really, yup?)
THE ONLY THING YOU CAN'T DO...

GPL

YOU MAY NOT
Make a copy,
then give it to someone else,
and then also prevent them from doing anything
we let you do on the last slide.

Enter Technology

Again, lambchops.

Consider the performer?

Why get paid multiple times to
perform a thing once?

Consider WHO gets paid

Frequently, you have a middle man.

Today, tech can help resist that?

How often are creators compensated..

really?

Consider schools, consider social media.

Bigger picture

The lesson might be, "don't infringe.."

Bigger picture

But if you do GO HARD.

Google, Youtube, Napster
Spotify..

and today — AI