Adaptation

Barlow's article in Wired gave a really fascinating analogy for copyright in the modern age: "Intellectual property law cannot be patched, retrofitted, or expanded to contain digitized expression any more than real estate law might be revised to cover the allocation of broadcasting spectrum (which, in fact, rather resembles what is being attempted here)."

Over the course of the semester, we've read a lot of articles concerning the problematic course IP law has taken. I don't know about anyone else, but as much as I understand intuitively, I find it hard to explain it in simple terms to anyone else without going into lots of detail that just confuses them more. Heller's concept of the gridlock economy has been one example that I fall back on, but I think that Barlow's analogy works best for the specific problems in copyright. When I read that, everything kind of clicked--it boils it down to the bare essentials of what this whole issue is about. The digital age doesn't fit into the neat little boundaries of old laws--those who try to confine the new within the old will inevitably die out. Those who adapt with survive.