1. The document discusses the history of copyright law from 1774 to the present, noting how copyright duration and scope have continually expanded over time at the expense of a free culture.
2. New technologies like the printing press and internet enabled unprecedented levels of sharing and building upon existing works, but these were increasingly regulated by copyright law and technological measures to control use and sharing.
3. The essay argues that current copyright and technology trends have moved society away from free and open sharing of creativity and innovation, and advocates for reclaiming an open approach that limits control of past works like in earlier eras.
156. “[Y]our site contains information providing the means to
circumvent AIBO-ware's copy protection protocol constituting
a violation of the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act.”
198. If people had understood how patents would be
granted when most of today’s ideas were invented
and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a
complete stand-still today.
199. The solution . . . is patenting as much as we can. . . . A future
start-up with no patents of its own will be forced to pay
whatever price the giants choose to impose. That price might be
high: Established companies have an interest in excluding future
competitors.
200. The solution . . . is patenting as much as we can. . . . A future
start-up with no patents of its own will be forced to pay
whatever price the giants choose to impose. That price might be
high: Established companies have an interest in excluding future
competitors.