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Patry Returns to Blogging, and to a Debate

By Robert J. Ambrogi

William Patry is back to blogging and already finds himself in a back-and-forth debate over whether copyright law inhibits innovation and props up antiquated business models. Patry is a prominent copyright lawyer who works as senior copyright counsel for Google and wrote a seven-volume treatise on copyright law. As we reported here at the time, Patry announced in February that he was discontinuing his popular blog, The Patry Copyright Blog, which he launched in 2005. Last week, he launched a new blog, Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars, tied to the release of his new book of the same name, to be published on Sept. 3 by Oxford University Press. The debate is with Ben Sheffner, author of the blog Copyrights & Campaigns, over the lessons to be learned from the music-industry trials over peer-to-peer file sharing. Patry actually invited Sheffner to the debate, believing he would serve as a "perfect counterpoint" to the views Patry expresses in his book. "I spoke to him about doing a kind of tag team on some of the issues raised, and he has generously agreed. I hope our constructive differences can help set a civil tone." In its simplest form, their debate turns...

Full post as published by Legal Blog Watch on August 18, 2009 (boomark / email).