File this under the title of: Raging battle about the Future of Civilization which you didn’t even know was a) a big battle or b) something important at all.
The topic: Copyright Law
And if Mark Helprin had his way, you would not have yawned at that last paragraph. His book, Digital Barbarism: A Writer’s Manifesto is a strikingly impassioned argument in favor of lengthening the time in which a work is under copyright protection. Helprin feel strongly about this—very strongly. There are people, many people, who feel strongly that copyright should be abolished altogether. Helprin has no patience for those who want to end copyright. No patience at all.
Helprin’s argument is solid—indeed, it is really hard to argue with the basic point he is making. Ending copyright is pretty much the same as theft—why shouldn’t I own the product of my work if the work is writing instead of something tangible? As a result, this book is too long—way too long. The short article version (from The New York Times and expanded in the Claremont Review of Books) is better because it makes the main argument without all the fuss. So, why the book? Well, it turns out that many people violently disagree with Helprin, so the book-length treatment is largely an exercise in refuting a bunch of very lazy criticisms of Helprin’s argument.
If you’ve read the shorter version of the argument, there is not much new here—just a lot more of Helprin’s great prose. (Though, truth be told, his prose here isn’t as good as it is elsewhere.)
After reading the book, I think it would be interesting to sit down over coffee to talk with Helprin about his argument. (Also after reading this book, I found out that such a conversation will never happen not only because Helprin really has no reason to ever sit down to talk to me, but because he describes in the book how he really hates sitting down to talk to anyone who is not a close friend.) I would be interested in sounding him out on an assortment of things about his argument—while I agree with his main point, I am not sure that the details are all right. It’s worth discussing. For example:
1) Why shouldn’t the same extension of the length of copyright apply to all patents? The thrust of his argument would suggest patent length should also be expanded, but I am not sure if Helprin would agree with that. Extending patents is a tricky thing—there is some real economic benefit from limiting the length of patents. Do those benefits matter? And if so, how much?
2) Would it bother Helprin if someone bought the rights to a work simply to destroy it? If, for example, someone who really hated Helprin’s argument were to buy the copyright to Winter’s Tale, and then the new owner prohibited any further publication of the work, that would be a great loss to society. Is that a problem?
3) As books move into the digital world, how much should a society spend preventing files from being copied? Over time, it is possible that preventing copying could become quite costly. Whose responsibility is it to stop such piracy?
4) Similar to item 3), how large should copyright infringement play in international relations? If a country, say China, were to decide to ignore copyright law, what should be done? This question is really just getting at how important copyright is in the grand scheme of things.
5) What does Helprin think about the Fair Use doctrine? Should I be able to freely copy any work for distribution of the work to a class I am teaching, or should students be required to pay a copyright fee to read an article or book chapter I assign in class?
The fact that Helprin’s book makes me wonder about things like those items is a real testament to the book. It’s an interesting topic. In fact, I had a thesis student a few years back write about copyright law—she was against it. (Much to her (mild) annoyance, I was never convinced.) In fact, I’d love to see Michelle and Mark Helprin talk about the issue—Michelle is vastly more thoughtful than the type of critics Helprin dissects in this book—but, I’ll never see that conversation either.
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