Glyn Moody: Walled Culture - A Journey Behind the Copyright Bricks

Glyn Moody has been writing about copyright, digital rights, and the Internet for 30 years. He is the editor of the Walled Culture project and author of Walled Culture - the Book (freely available as ebook). He previously wrote ‘Rebel Code: Linux and the Open Source Revolution’. He explains how the Walled Culture project is a reflection on digital copyright going wrong, and how copyright and the Internet have shown to be fundamentally incompatible. Glyn highlights how there’s no escaping copyright in an online world. He shares some copyright absurdities, with big content fighting the visually impaired and initiatives like Project Gutenberg and Google Books. He talks about how Big Content put on shackles on libraries thanks to Digital Rights Management (DRM), and reflects on the injustice of the Big Publishers’ suing the Internet Archive. Glyn points out how Big Academic Publishers hijacked the shift towards open access to benefit their bottom line, while pointing out that diamond open access shows that we can move away from the academic publishing business. He recalls how Big Record Labels went on a rampage, suing grandmothers and children, neglecting the opportunity to give consumers what they wanted. Glyn describes Big Content’s push for copyright enforcement, from the French three strikes mechanism to the SOPA and ACTA battles, while emphasising how copyright laws got skewed towards Big Content. He talks about the failures surrounding the EU Copyright Directive and the looming dangers of upload filters. He further highlights how copyright no longer promotes culture but harms it, and how it’s about protecting Big Content, not creators. Glyn concludes by reflecting on a possible way forward: building on creators’ true fans.

📌Time Stamp
⏲️[00:00] Intro
⏲️[01:05] Walled Culture: Digital copyright going wrong
⏲️[03:51] Copyright vs. the Internet: Fundamentally incompatible
⏲️[06:44] Who gives a toss about copyright: In an online world you should
⏲️[08:27] Copyright absurdities - Part 1: Big Content vs the visually impaired
⏲️[10:26] Copyright absurdities - Part 2: Big Content vs Project Gutenberg & Google Books
⏲️[13:31] Digital Rights Management (DRM): Big content putting the shackles on libraries
⏲️[15:33] Big Publishers suing the Internet Archive
⏲️[17:58] Big Academic Publishers & open access: One step forward, two steps back
⏲️[21:55] Diamond open access: Moving away from the academic publishing business
⏲️[24:55] Preprints: More eyeballs scrutinising academic research
⏲️[26:40] Big Record Labels on a rampage: Suing grandmothers & children
⏲️[30:52] People pay: If you offer them what they want on fair terms
⏲️[34:24] Big Content’s push for Copyright enforcement: From three strikes to SOPA and ACTA
⏲️[39:06] The impact of copyright on our digital lives
⏲️[40:05] Copyright laws: Skewed towards Big Content
⏲️[44:17] The EU Copyright Directive: How not to bring copyright into the digital age
⏲️[45:12] The EU Copyright Directive: No freedom of panorama
⏲️[46:58] The EU Copyright Directive upload filters: It’s going to be bad
⏲️[52:00] Stopping preservation: Copyright no longer promotes culture but harms it
⏲️[55:35] Busting copyright’s creator myth: It’s about protecting Big Content
⏲️[57:51] The power of true fans

📌Guest of this Episode
🎙️ Glyn Moody
Editor of the Walled Culture project and author of Walled Culture - the Book
🌐 Book: https://walledculture.org/the-book/
🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/glynmoody
🌐 Diaspora: https://joindiaspora.com/people/4cfe755c2c1743364f000890
🌐 Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@glynmoody