Seltzer on the Copyfight and Democracy (Donna Wentworth)
No kidding, folks. How can one have a democracy when one can't even express ideas for fear of running afoul of intellectual property law, even when their speech is decidedly non commercial? What does this have to do with Wicca? Lots. We're finding that increasing amounts of "non traditional" speech is being squelched by threats of lawsuit if any part of it is quoting other works. Even if those quotes are fair use. The mere threat is enough to silence the speaker.
Wendy Seltzer: "The Madrid Summit was outside my usual realm of intellectual property law, but the change served to remind me that while the copyfight is but a small part of the picture, the principles we're fighting for are more than music. ....At least a part of [the task of promoting democracy] is communication -- communicating with other democratic citizens and with other people seeking democracy. ...I don't think it's stretching too far to say that protecting against abuses of privacy, copyright or trademark online strengthens these tools of democracy."
[Copyfight]