BTB #163: Copyright Law No Day At the Beach in 2010

As an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Fred von Lohmann watches new technology and copyright law and move in separate but related waves. This is true today with digital media, as he sees it, but was also true in the past, when broadcast radio and later, VCRs, challenged existing business models for the news and entertainment industries. In 2010, he tells Chris Kenneally during a break at the recent OnCopyright conference, we find ourselves caught by the undertow, though von Lohmann predicts perfect beach days lie ahead.

“After a new technology has been absorbed into an existing business model, it gets to be real boring for the lawyers. And that’s a good thing, right? I’m looking forward to returning to a sleepier copyright bar. It may take five to 10 more years, but I think we’ll get there.