Copyright, Fair Use, and the Cultural Commons

William C. Uricchio, Co-Director, Comparative Media Studies Program and Professor of Comparative Media Studies, MIT hosts a panelists’ discussion of current copyright wars with a brief historical overview of copyright protection.

In 1790, when news traveled by horse and carriage, copyright protection was good for 14 years. Today, when a digital, networked society enables instant transmission of data, protection lasts 70-plus years. Uricchio notes, “Bizarrely, the faster information circulates, the longer we’re extending copyright protection. It seems totally at odds with where our constitution framers and case law emerged from.”

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