Prof. Wendy J. Gordon on Copyright

[Ed. note: This was originally published in the WSJ.]

Twenty years ago, the Supreme Court refused to hold a technology liable for its users' copyright infringement. The reason? That the technology (the now-familiar VCR) was capable of a "substantial noninfringing use." As the VCR was so capable, so probably is Grokster. Yet Mr. Olson argues that Grokster and similar peer-to-peer technologies should be held liable for how others use them. If that became the rule, our future might well look different than we expect.

For example, consider this:

"Beam me up, Scotty!"

"No can do, captain. The transporter beam has been shut down by court order. Kids have been using their home transporter machines to zap items off store shelves. To stop the kids, a court is blocking use of the technology altogether. You'll have to find another way to get back. Theft cannot be tolerated, whatever the cost."

In the nonfictional world, we know there's no free lunch. Without copyright putting some restraints on our abilities to copy, we'd lose some of our culture -- but without some restraints on copyright, we'll lose a lot more than we can afford.

Prof. Wendy J. Gordon
Boston
(Ms. Gordon is Liacos Scholar in Law, Boston University School of Law, and Visiting Scholar, MIT, Cambridge, Mass.)