Plagiarism Today - Latest Comments in William Patry Quits Blogging

Re: William Patry Quits Blogging

plagiarismtoday — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:21:07 -0000

I truly is a sad, if understandable decision. The funny thing about it for me is that I did not even know his job title until many months after I had started reading his blog (the beauty of RSS). However, when I found out, it didn't make me think "Oh, this is a Google Blog", instead, it made me give more credence to his opinion as he had a high position in the field.

I noticed that his opinions on the site often went against Google policy and it was pretty obvious to me, as well as most others I think, that this was something personal to him and not related to his company. It's sad that certain people didn't understand.

You make an excellent point about the job of attorneys to examine different viewpoints, but it is also worth noting that attorneys represent their clients, not themselves (unless we're talking a pro se matter but that's another conversation). This practically forces them to wear even more different hats.

it is safe to say that Patry is well traveled in the copyright landscape and his blog was where he came home, took off all the hats he has to wear and write about what he thinks and sees in the world. It was enlightening that way.

Unfortunately, it appears that it shall be no more...

Re: William Patry Quits Blogging

Carol Shepherd — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:54:23 -0000

Those of us who read Patry's blog while living within the ups and downs of the applied practice of copyright law and policy really understand the sadness of this decision. I'm sorry that he felt the need to do this in part, due to the inability of the public and the media to separate his work in the intellectual advancement of copyright, from his work as an attorney representing Google.

Professor Fred Schauer once said in lecture that the process of thinking like a lawyer requires a lawyer to actually adopt contrary points of view: to understand and evaluate them, it's necessary to try them on like coats and shoes and walk around living in them for a while, genuinely experiencing them. It's unfortunate that many in the media and the public fail to recognize that a lawyer's intellectual detachment from agenda and ability to engage in debate about the direction of the law is critical to serving clients and the public well. Patry's blog stood out among other quality efforts in copyright scholarship precisely because it represented his intellectual work product from the standpoint of private practice experience rather than an academic or media perspective.

I'm in agreement with Patry's view that copyright has moved down the sliding scale towards the structure and philosophy of patent protection. The original balance between stimulating creation and innovation and protecting rights for limited times has been altered in favor of stifling creativity and innovation in the service of locking down exclusive rights to data for as long as possible. Patry is right: this is depressing. Particularly for bright and creative culture-makers who feel it's their cultural heritage to incorporate elements of their experience into new pastiches. Fair use should allow that, but the system has been gerrymandered via the DMCA to place public domain materials behind access restriction devices and to make incorporation of any amount of copyrighted materials an illegal act.

Carol Shepherd, Arborlaw PLC
arborlaw.biz

Re: William Patry Quits Blogging

SlingWords — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 16:54:42 -0000

Thanks, Jonathan. I've been notifying various websites about this. Will file with DMCA also.

Re: William Patry Quits Blogging

plagiarismtoday — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 15:43:28 -0000

I'm sorry to hear about your problem with Zurza. Sadly, it is a well-known spam blog.

I would file a DMCA notice with copyright at theplanet dot com to file a notice against their host, as always, you're free to use the stock letters on my site if they'll help you.

As for Patry, I can understand and relate to that feeling. I guess I Just hope to get others to help hold back the ocean as well..

Let me know if I can help with your problem!

Re: William Patry Quits Blogging

SlingWords — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 15:30:47 -0000

To complete my comment (I'm feeling rather scattered today), I think Patry felt as if he were the Dutch boy trying to hold back the ocean with his thumb stuck in a hole in the dike.

Re: William Patry Quits Blogging

SlingWords — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 15:19:28 -0000

Jonathan, this is distressing news. Unfortunately, I'm already upset today about copyright issues. Found a blog post I wrote BE A HAPPY HOOKER for my Performancing blog Saturday

http://performancing.com/blog/joan-reeves

reprinted in its entirety this morning on http://zurza.com/be-a-happy-hooker/. Of course my name didn't appear anywhere. I complained in Zurza's comments, which is of course moderated. Complained to Performancing and Technorati too.