Online, who owns what?
FROM VARIETY: Copyright issues addressed at confab
By William Triplett of Variety -- Video Business, 6/10/2009
JUNE 10 | FROM VARIETY: The World Copyright Summit on Tuesday was a unifying effort as the entertainment industry grapples with an uncertain future, but it also highlighted just how polarizing the whole notion of copyright has become in the digital age.A series of panels saw back-and-forth sniping and other disagreement -- and, indeed, one expert lamented the very nature of copyright itself.
Author and Columbia Law School professor Michael Heller gave a speech ominously noting that "when too many people own pieces of one thing, no one can use it. Too much ownership causes gridlock."
The creative media are stuck in "copyright gridlock," Heller said, citing as an example the made-for-TV docu Eyes on the Prize, about the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. After initially airing in the 1980s, Eyes ended up locked away for 20 years as clearances for many images, photos and songs used in the footage couldn't be secured since rights holders were unknown or wouldn't agree to terms with the filmmaker.
Read the full story on Variety.com.
