We often hear that copyright is a monopoly. We also hear that as a monopoly, copyright costs consumers because monopoly goods are by definition more expensive (what economists would call “deadweight loss.” But U. of Texas at Dallas Managerial Economics Professor Stan Liebowitz July 11 presented a compelling paper at the Society for Economic Research [...]

Yes, I know peer-to-peer technology allows remarkable things. I spoke in favor of legal use of the technology at CES in January. But how many times do we have to hear about people having their identities compromised because of the sharing features of infringing P2P networks? Accomplished WashingtonPost.com reporter Brian Krebs made the front page [...]

A theme I’ve returned to on occasion over the years is the increasing tendency of some to simply lift someone else’s material off of the Web, without modification or adjustment through other sources. I’ve even publicly called my daughter out on it, so I do not discriminate in my criticism. This practice is called plagiarism. [...]

It is admirable when someone spends a quarter-century examining every strip of bark on every single tree; they can be an accomplished arborist that way. But that can make it very difficult for that person to see that in fact a forest is comprised of those trees. I never claim to be a copyright lawyer. [...]

Well, we’ve been down this road before. What is fair use? According to the American University Center for Social Media, fair use can be defined as follows: Fair use is the right, in some circumstances, to quote copyrighted material without asking permission or paying for it. Okay, we’re already off on the wrong foot. Most [...]

You know the cliche in movies and TV shows where one character distracts another by looking aside and saying “What’s that?” only to punch the other character while he’s distracted? I see that a lot in the comments sections of news columns and blogs dealing with copyright. In this BBC News column, for example, Darren [...]