Monthly Archives::
January 2010
My latest Guardian column, “Copyright, companies, individuals and news: the rules of the road,” is a start on a coherent framework for a copyright system that recognizes the difference between commercial use and non-commercial use, incidental copying and unfair copying, and many of the other exceptions that copyright needs to keep from devolving into a stupid caricature of itself:
We’re trying to retrofit the rules that governed multi-stage rocket ships (huge publishing conglomerates) to cover the activity of pedestrians (people who post quotes from books on their personal blogs). And the pedestrians aren’t buying it: they hear that they need a law degree to safely quote from their favourite TV show and they assume that the system is irredeemably broken and not worth attending to at all.It’s an impossible situation. As an author, I depend on there being some rules of the road when I negotiate with my publishers, and it’s in every commercial creator’s interest to try to find a moderate, coherent copyright rule that avoid dumb absolutes in favour of nuance and fairness. I don’t pretend that I have all the answers, but here’s some of the principles that I think a good copyright system must embrace if is to succeed. Many of these principles are already in various nations’ copyright rules as part of “fair dealing” or “fair use,” but these user-rights in copyright are complex and difficult to navigate and vary from country to country.
Copyright, companies, individuals and news: the rules of the road
(Image: Breach of Copyright – The Independent, from PeteZab’s photostream)
Here’s the ninth and final installment of the podcast of my new story, MARTIAN CHRONICLES, being written for Jonathan Strahan’s YA Mars book, LIFE ON MARS.
Mastering by John Taylor Williams: wryneckstudio@gmail.com
John Taylor Williams is a full-time self-employed audio engineer, producer, composer, and sound designer. In his free time, he makes beer, jewelry, odd musical instruments and furniture. He likes to meditate, to read and to cook.
Mitch Wagner from the Second Life interview show Copper Robot has written up my interview there a couple weeks ago, in a Tor.com post called “A cheery conversation with Cory Doctorow about the upside of economic collapse.” He’s also included the audio, which I’m folding into my podcast feed.
A cheery conversation with Cory Doctorow about the upside of economic collapse
Joris Peels from Shapeways liked the cover on the HarperCollins UK edition of my novel Makers, which features a variety of objects depicted in the novel as plastic model-parts attached to a sprue. Shapeways being a custom 3D printing shop, Joris whipped up an incredibly detailed 3D version of the cover illustration, which arrived in today’s post. Color me grateful, delighted and gobsmacked. Thanks, Joris!
Update: Joris adds, “The design was modeled by Shapeways Community member Dmitry Kobzar; He spent 13 hours and 7 minutes making it. He will be thrilled that you’re happy with it. The reason I asked Dmitry to model it was so we could make Makers come to life just like the people in your book do.”
We’re going to release the model files under a Creative Commons license. Watch this space!
Shapeways 3D printed version of the UK Makers cover
Joris Peels from Shapeways liked the cover on the HarperCollins UK edition of my novel Makers, which features a variety of objects depicted in the novel as plastic model-parts attached to a sprue. Shapeways being a custom 3D printing shop, Joris whipped up an incredibly detailed 3D version of the cover illustration, which arrived in today’s post. Color me grateful, delighted and gobsmacked. Thanks, Joris!
Update: Joris adds, “The design was modeled by Shapeways Community member Dmitry Kobzar; He spent 13 hours and 7 minutes making it. He will be thrilled that you’re happy with it. The reason I asked Dmitry to model it was so we could make Makers come to life just like the people in your book do.”
We’re going to release the model files under a Creative Commons license. Watch this space!
Shapeways 3D printed version of the UK Makers cover
Tor.com’s just posted the final iteration of the little rotating tile-game based on the Creative Commons-licensed illustrations that accompanied the serialization of my novel Makers. The 9×9 grid is truly a thing of awesome beauty.
Tor.com’s just posted the final iteration of the little rotating tile-game based on the Creative Commons-licensed illustrations that accompanied the serialization of my novel Makers. The 9×9 grid is truly a thing of awesome beauty.
Here’s part eight of the podcast of my story in progress, MARTIAN CHRONICLES, being written for Jonathan Strahan’s YA Mars book, LIFE ON MARS.
Mastering by John Taylor Williams: wryneckstudio@gmail.com
John Taylor Williams is a full-time self-employed audio engineer, producer, composer, and sound designer. In his free time, he makes beer, jewelry, odd musical instruments and furniture. He likes to meditate, to read and to cook.
I’m to be the guest of honor at ICON 35: A Steam Powered Convention of the Future, to be held November 5-7, 2010 at the Cedar Rapids Marriott. This is a great, venerable regional con and I’m really looking forward to seeing some of Iowa! Hope to run into you there. And for those of you on the west coast, a reminder that I’ll be a special guest at Norwescon in Seattle, April 1-4, along with Vernor Vinge and many fine other writers, artists, and fans.
