A Vision for Copyright in the 21st Century

Abstract:

No matter where you stand on copyright, you probably agree that it’s a confusing and contentious issue. Few people understand copyright and even fewer agree on how strongly it should be applied or enforced in the digital age. This paper offers a clear and sensible vision for copyright in the 21st century. It proposes and demonstrates three features that should be incorporated into each and every work that is copyrighted: Inform, Enable, and Authenticate. These three features make copyright work for all stakeholders in the digital content ecosystem, including content creators, content distributors, and content consumers.

Contents:

• A Vision for Copyright in the 21st Century: Introduction
• A Vision Based on 20-20 Hindsight
• Putting the Vision into Practice: Inform, Enable, Authenticate
• Extending the Features to Publishers and Aggregators
• Extending the Features to Search Engines
• Extending the Features to the Browser and Digital Devices
• Extending the Features to Publishing Tools and Systems
• Extending the Features into the Enterprise
• The Need for a Unified Vision

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Link to the Online interactive version.