Introduction

The realm of copyright is full of mystery. What is "fair use"? What does it mean for a creative work to enter the "public domain"? And why should we care?

Copyright law is at the core of today's hot controversies in the arts, science, and scholarship. Teenagers swapping music online; encryption schemes that lock up e-books, songs, and movies; ever-longer extensions of copyright control — conflict over these issues has caused a crisis in the worlds of creativity and culture.

With computer technology, these conflicts have intensified. The Internet allows ideas and information to be shared worldwide on a scale never possible before. But technology also enables media companies to exercise unprecedented control over the use of their products through systems of "digital rights management" that undermine traditional "fair uses" of copyrighted works.

Laws passed by Congress to aid the companies that make up the "copyright industry" have also intensified the debates. Writers, scholars, artists, and free-speech activists, both online and off, have challenged these laws. Some have campaigned for "Free Software" or even advocated an end to copyright protection. Others, including publishers, movie producers, and many authors, artists, and composers, have argued for stronger restrictions on copying and sharing, and longer terms of copyright protection. In between are increasing numbers of citizens who recognize that while copyright serves an important function in advancing science, art, and culture, these new laws have badly upset the "difficult balance" between rewarding creativity through the copyright system and "society's competing interest in the free flow of ideas, information, and commerce."1

This report describes the challenges to art, scholarship, and free expression posed by current copyright law. For many artists, scholars, Web surfers, and lovers of music file-sharing, this may be terra incognita. For almost all of us, it is an area where a relatively small priesthood of lawyers and policymakers communicates in a largely unknown language.

But the tension between strong copyright control and free expression today cannot be ignored. This report is intended to help inform the debate even though it cannot, obviously, cover all the ins and outs of "intellectual property," which includes not only copyright, but trademark, patent, and "trade secrets" law. We hope the report will provide a useful guide to the issues while underscoring the vital link between free expression and core elements of the copyright system, such as fair use and the public domain. Every citizen, especially every netizen, should know these issues.