Computers and Robots Can Copy Your Work, and Get Away With It
So Long as Computers Don’t Understand the Copied Content, Copyright Law Will Stay Focused on People
Copyright has a weird relationship with computers. Sometimes it completely freaks out about them; sometimes it pretends it can’t see them at all. The contrast tells us a lot about copyright—and even more about how we relate to new technologies.
Start with the freak-out. One thing that computers are good for is making copies—lots of copies. Drag your music folder from your hard drive to your backup Dropbox and congratulations, you’ve just duplicated thousands of copyrighted songs. If you look up the section of the Copyright Act that sets out what …
