5
2005
In the "two birds, one stone" category, my eWeek column is an interview with Dan Glickman. Glickman is head of the Motion Picture Association of America. The most interesting thing about this particular interview is that it took place.
Why? Well, Glickman’s holding out an olive branch. It’s not a big one. Just a little twig. But he knows – he’s a former Congressman and member of the House Judiciary Committee and former Clinton Administration Secretary of Agriculture – that if changes in copyright law are necessary then he’s going to need the tech community. It’s worth noting that Glickman doesn’t expect – nor should tech folks – a slam-dunk on MGM v. Grokster, the peer-to-peer case and that he’s leaving room for negotiation on the law: look at what he says about distributions systems.
Now, I am not a big fan of interpreting decisions by the questions Supreme Court justices ask in oral arguments. But it was interesting to me – as I mentioned to Glickman – the number of lawyers who were impressed by the Justices' questions, particularly their technical questions. Also worth noting: Glickman’s use of the “for now” when talking about the Creative Commons licensing system. Most folks in Washington think – because CC doesn’t do a good job of explaining the paid rights part of what they do – that CC is a free system. A little better messaging about how CC rachets up and down for different rights under different circumstances might go a long way here.
While I’m here, apologies for the light writing this week. I’m now in Nashville, Tenn., and am planning to show up at BlogNashville on Friday evening to hear Glenn Reynolds, J.D. Lasica and others talk about – like we in the on-line writing community can’t get enough -- blogging and journalism.