On the same page

Brewster Kahle talks to Cnet about his recent unsuccessful suit to make out-of-print works available online. (via the Chronicle)

Quick two-cent analysis—the interview is actually a bit shallow. I don't know if this is the future academic speaking, but Kahle (or the interviewer) touches upon several important issues without really making clear what he is talking about. Among these issues—the potential counterintuitive danger of the Google Books scanning project to the possibility of a true open-source library; the four practical stages of a creative work's status under copyright protection: public domain, "orphan," out-of-print, and in-print, and the importance of fighting over the ambiguous "ophan" works; Disney's role in the current overbearing extention of copyright protection; and the potential danger of the reconstituted AT&T to internet neutrality.

However, it turns out that Kahle and I agree that action on copyright law reform needs to be taken on a fundamental level, by "the Supreme Court and the Congress," and not just item-by-item in the appellate courts. (Also, Snarkmarket readers may have noticed that he gives a shout-out to the $100 laptop.)