William Patrys copyright blog shuts down

Published on: 2008-8-3

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William Patry's copyright blog shuts down

2008-08-03T17:05:33

William Patry, senior copyright counsel at Google, has decided to end his blog. End of Blog One of the two reasons he gives for winding up: The Current State of Copyright Law is too depressing. Much like the U.S. economy, things are getting worse, not better. Copyright law has abandoned its reason for being: to encourage learning and the creation of new works. Instead, its principal functions now are to preserve existing failed business models, to suppress new business models and technologies, and to obtain, if possible, enormous windfall profits from activity that not only causes no harm, but which is beneficial to copyright owners. Like Humpty-Dumpty, the copyright law we used to know can never be put back together again: multilateral and trade agreements have ensured that, and quite deliberately.