[free-sklyarov] Mainstream Support

[Bob Smart]

On Saturday 28 July 2001 20:15, you wrote:

> I guess I mean
> Large, national organizations with purposes OTHER THAN DMCA and technology,
> with established lobbying and/or public communication infrastructures,
> which are either known by the public or which when introduced to the public
> will "seem" "not radical" and which are likely to be able to get a
> congressman's ear.

Yes, indeed.  People need to understand that this isn't just some obscure, 
technical dust-up that only affects "those nerdy people."  In fact, this 
affects everyone who uses or someday might wish to use a public library.  In 
that vein: did anybody else think of the American Library Association 
(www.ala.org)?  They've been under some fire about these issues, too.

The ALA has described the whole tone of recent copyright developments as 
"unsettling," and well they might.  "Copyright" historically means "the right 
to make copies," but recently the focus has been more and more on restricting 
and controlling ACCESS, not copying.  Publishers aren't complaining that 
libraries are making unauthorized copies--they're upset that people can just 
walk in off the street and access copyrighted material without paying 
repeatedly for each use.  Since libraries have traditionally been in the 
business of facilitating access, not restricting it, this is a huge issue for 
them.

-- 

What I wrote above is hereby dedicated to the public domain and may be freely 
used, in whole or in part, with or without attribution.