The Cranky Copyright Book

Joe Clark’s upcoming book on copyright for creators
– and how you can contribute

What if everything you knew about copyright was wrong?

Well, it isn’t. And I’m not here to tell you it is. But I do want to break you out of the spell you’ve been under since Larry Lessig became your secular god.

There really is a way to look at copyright that is not a form of apologia for dying “content” industries, like the music business and Hollywood studios. This new way also has very little to do with “free culture,” Creative Commons, and the teachings of gurus like Lessig and Michael Geist.

Where do either of those extremes leave the individual creator? The lone writer, the lone musician, the lone photographer, the lone designer? So far, the answer has been “forgotten and shunned.”

If you think copyright needs reform, what are you looking for? A complete overthrow of corporate copyright, swapping in what Lessig and Geist have promoted? Or do you want a true dialogue on copyright – a new set of ideas to be debated and weighed against the other two sets of ideas? (Really: Debate on copyright runs the gamut of ideas from A to B.)

The Cranky Copyright Book is a new project that aims to broaden the debate about copyright. You’re not going to agree with what I’ve got to say, at least not at first. And I want you to pay me to say it.

Do you want to know more?

NEW! Update: I need another round of contributions, but hey, the book gets published

You can also download ad banners for your blog and contact me. You can become a fan of The Cranky Copyright Book “on the Facebook,” if that sort of thing turns your crank(y).

Fun fact!

Somebody already thinks I have no business writing this book!