Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace

His remarkable point in the book is that cyberspace changes not only the technology of copying but also the power of law to protect against illegal copying (125-127). We can even say that code displaces the balance in copyright law and doctrines such as fair use (135). If it becomes possible to license every aspect of use (by means of trusted systems created by code), then no aspect of use would have the protections of fair use (136). The importance of this side of the story is generally underestimated and, as the examples will show, very often, code is even (only) considered as an extra tool to fight against "unlimited copying".

"The Future of Ideas" is a continuation of this book in that he wanrs too much long term of copyright protection hampers recreations of new ideas based on existing works and advocates the importance of existing works becoming public domains in short period.

See property, idea, copyright protection articles for discussion about idea as property.

Reference

• Internet and Copyright in Japan (07-2002) (http://akira.arts.kuleuven.ac.be/andreas/english_paper_gaidai) by Andreas Bovens