An Act for the Encouragement of Learning?

Minus the question mark, the above title is also the beginning of the title for the first copyright law in the United States, passed in 1790 by the first U.S. Congress. Now, in a report that will come as no surprise to most of the scholars listed on my blogroll (bottom left) the British Academy has determined that contemporary copyright laws are achieving precisely the opposite — the discouragement of learning. Over the past three decades, we have witnessed a wholesale shift away from copyright's foundational purpose — access to and circulation of information — in favor of a regime of permissions and protection. This shift does not serve the people at large. Rather, it serves the needs of a small cohort of coroporations who now hold the rights to so-called "intellectual property." Kudos to the Academy for telling the story in these terms.