One of the biggest threats to innovation is perpetual copyright. Lawrence Lessig and his legal team need to hear examples of people being burdened by copyright-related barriers to the use of orphan works. Lessig is involved in Kahle v. Ashcroft, a lawsuit that challenges changes to U.S. copyright law that have created a large class of "orphan works" -- creative works which are out of print and no longer commercially available, but which are still regulated by copyright.
You can help the legal team if you have ever wanted to copy, distribute, perform, modify, sample, mash-up, or generally use an orphan work, but were prevented from doing so because:
- The cost of trying to find the copyright holder was too high.
- You were unable to find the copyright holder.
- You were able to find the copyright holder and they refused to issue a license.
- You were able to find the copyright holder and you were issued a license, but you have a good story to tell about how difficult the process was.
Kahle v Ashcroft -- "Submission site"
Slashdot -- "Lessig legal team need your copyright stories"
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