Steal This Article

Fantastic, comprehensive story in today's New York Times magazine (registration required) on the state of copyright in the United States and it's possible effects on the creative culture of the country. This one's definitely getting saved for book research, as there will be one or two chapters on intellectual property and fair use that will talk specifically about Lessig and Rick Boucher.

One of the best bits of the six-page article is, appropriately enough, pulled from another piece, by Columbia Law School professor Jane Ginsberg. She notes that "authors have moral claims that neither corporate intermediaries nor consumer end-users can (straightfacedly) assert.'' Which is a much more diplomatic way of saying that, in the case of online music, neither the major labels nor the outspoken downloaders know what the fuck they're talking about, because they're just proxies with ulterior motives.