The Copyright Cuffs

CIO, October, 2003 by Jonathan Zittrain

A couple of years ago I was talking with a law school colleague about cyberlaw and the people who study it. "I've always wondered," he said, "why all the cyberprofs hate copyright."

I don't actually hate copyright, and yet I knew just what he meant. Almost all those who self-identify as cyberspace law scholars agree that copyright law is a big mess. So far as I can tell, federal courts experts don't reject or loathe our system of federal courts, and criminal law experts split every which way on the overall virtue of the criminal justice system. So what's with cyberprofs' uniform discontent about copyright?

I think an answer can be gleaned from the tax scholars. Without decrying the concept of taxation, every tax professor I've met regards the U.S. tax code with a...

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