Robin Gross Quotes
The copyright bargain: a balance between protection for the artist and rights for the consumer.
In early America, the United States did NOT participate in the European International Copyright convention. The American purpose of copyright was not to protect authors and intellectual property owners, but to promote knowledge and culture. The original purpose was to limit the time during with an author could control his/her creative work so that the society as a whole can get maximum benefit. With the rise of large corporate intellectual property owners with strong lobbyists, they have been able to change the copyright law to greatly enlarge their time and methods of control. The Pirate Party wants to go back to the original intention of the Founding Fathers.
Guthrie was one of the many people who used the copyright law to prevent someone else from restricting the information and allowing wide utilization of their proprietary material. This is sometimes called “copyleft.” This quotation collection is another example of copyrighted material with broad encouragement of utilization.
Robin Gross is founder and Executive Director of IP Justice, an international civil liberties organization that promotes balanced intellectual property law and defends freedom of expression.