Week 3 - What is copyright?

Reading

Your homework this week is to read:

Berry, John N. “The Real Purpose of Copyright.” Library Journal, 2000, available online at http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA158872.html
Stallman, Richard M. “Misinterpreting Copyright–A Series of Errors.” Free Software, Free Society Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman. Ed. Joshua Gay. New York: Free Software Foundation, 2002. 77-86. Print. http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/misinterpreting-copyright.html

Then post your response by editing the discussion part of this page. You can edit the discussion section by clicking in the top left corner on "Discussion" near "Project page" and then editing the page using the link in the top right corner.

Questions

Answer on this page's discussion tab one of the following questions or respond to another student's comment.

Stallman suggests that the public "deserves to get what it wants." Do you think this is a good standard to use in developing copyright? If you do think so - how could we gauge the want of the public? If not - what would be a better metric?
Berry and Stallman both suggest that copyright was historically intended as a limited bargain between society and those who create creative content, as a way to encourage the production of such works - and explicitly not as a form of ownership or as moral right. Assuming for now that Berry and Stallman are correct - how should the historical origins of copyright affect modern-day discussions of such?

Account creation

Hopefully, you've created your Wikipedia account already. On the off-chance you haven't, please make sure to do so before our meeting this week. In case you haven't, yet, here's how:

Create your Wikipedia account. If you need help, you can watch the tutorial. If you so wish, feel free to go ahead and make your user page and add info boxes. You can find helpful information at the bottom of this page or in the "Resources" tab. (We'll go over this more in depth at the next class)
Add your username to the class list under Students by selecting the edit tab on the right. If you don't have any objections, please put your real name next to your user name, just to make it easier for us.

Create and personalize your user page

If you don't want to add anything other than your name and major*, you are not obligated. However, if you want to add some neat little user boxes, you can browse the gallery. A simple way to format your userboxes is:

{{userboxtop}}
{{ this is where you put your boxes of choice }}
{{userboxbottom}}

An example of this can be found on my page.

*If you choose not to identify yourself on your userpage, please send us an email letting us know your username.

If you have trouble with anything don't worry, just send us an email.

Reminders

You must present on at least one current event this semester; feel free to sign up for next week on our main course page.
You can sign your comment with ~~~~ (4 tildes)
If you wish to indent your response type one or more colons (":") at the start of it
To answer adequately your responses should be about a paragraph in length.
Two students each week will have their comments selected as a featured comment and receive a small amount of extra credit.

Wikipedia:United States Education Program/Courses/Politics of Piracy (Kevin Gorman and Katie Gilmore)/Timeline/3

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