Copyright Questions

I’ve been working through some copyright questions on my blog in preparation for a law exam today, and I thought I’d link to them from over here since they’re pertinent to our class. One of the more interesting questions I was handed has to do with whether or not authorship is equilvalent to a brand. I’m not entirely comfortable with my answer to that one, and there’s an interesting discussion going on in the comments. (Update: more rambling on this topic here)

Other questions I endeavored to answer are:

• Can open source models serve as viable substitutes for copyright’s goals?
• What major changes would you recommend to copyright’s structure and why?
• What are the major functions of copyright law and in what way have new technologies transformed those functions?

I’d love it if you feel like weighing in on any of these. I think they’re all interesting questions, and I don’t necessarily think my answers are the right ones. My opinion on duration, for instance has changed since John asked about it on the first day of class last week; then, I said that 14 + 14 was appropriate, and now I’m wondering if life of the author wouldn’t be better. (Sorry, John! Come tell me why I’m wrong!)