bIPlog started... About The Time Eldred Was at the SupCt

The bIPlog has a funny start date, because we came out of a class that started in late August, 2002, but the site didn't go live until November 15, 2002. However, we did entries starting in September internally, but didn't make all of them live in November. My first published entry was ago year today. So I'm noting it's been about a year.

Blogging, and making conversations with others writing in the same topic space, iterating knowledge and developing relationships, have changed everything academically and professionally for me, introducing me to outstanding people, getting to know them first by their writing, then in person. Every time I meet one of these bloggers, I delighted by who they are live. The bIPlog is an outlet for my thoughts on IP, security, privacy, media and distribution ("bip-log" is so much more fun to say than bIPSPMDlog, don't you think?).

The bIPlog was the basis for a paper Ethan Eismann and I did on best practices in blogging, using the bIPlog community to think about these issues. It was presented at the BlogTalk conference in Vienna in May. A couple of panels were prompted by the start and finishing of the class, as was some interesting press. And as a result of bIPlog, more of my academic work looks into blogging, traditional and participatory journalism, P2P information networks and social networks, for iterating knowledge and trusting information, both in terms of building systems and writing about them. And of course, IP, security and privacy are an ongoing study leading to papers, articles and research. It's also been fun getting slash-dotted and writing stories with interesting expressionistic linking.

Regarding Eldred, there has been a lot of talk on the bIPlog about it, since last year. Eldred was a case that really got me thinking beyond class discussions about copyright and IP, content and the public domain, to much deeper issues. So while the case was decided unfavorably for the public domain, I do appreciate the discussions it's prompted, here and out in the media with the public. Hopefully as a result of these discussions, people understand more about how the information economy, copyright and the public domain intermingle. I also hope there is more thought about the state of copyright generally, the balance between the monopoly we bestow on creators in exchange for certain use rights, not to mention a reasonable sunset ending each monopoly granted, the distribution of media and content, how the media pipe owners (both distribution as well as internet service providers) are often also the biggest copyright content owners, how copyright holders use private methods to invoke bad public policy with DRM, and why these things matter for public discourse, the sharing of ideas, innovation, creativity and entertainment. I am offended by the idea that people are prevented from legitimate personal and commercial expression because of the chilling effects of the DMCA, DRM and overly-broad copyright, security and privacy policy. We will kill vibrancy, culture and our future economic health if our policies favoring incumbents in this area continues as it has in the digital era.

bIPlog and the folks I've met and worked with through the blog have been transformative for me (plus I like them all so much!), and I hope our blogging discussions will help us change these policies for a more fair balance between intellectual property owners and the public. I can't thank enough Scot Hacker (master of the JSchool blogging universe), Paul Grabowicz and John Battelle, for having the class, the other students, and my fellow bloggers who teach me so much every day.

Posted by Mary Hodder at October 10, 2003 02:00 PM