Cody Taylor

The Narrative Fallacy writes “The Washington Post has an interesting profile on Barbara A. Ringer, who joined the Copyright Office at the Library of Congress in 1949 and spent 21 years drafting the legislation and lobbying Congress before the Copyright Act of 1976 was finally passed. Ringer wrote most of the bill herself. ‘Barbara had personal and political skills that could meld together the contentious factions that threatened to tear apart every compromise in the 20 year road to passage of the 1976 Act,’ wrote copyright lawyer William Patry. The act codified the fair use defense to copyright infringement. For the first time, scholars and reviewers could quote briefly from copyrighted works without having to pay fees. With the 1976 act that Ringer conceived, an author owned the copyright for his or her lifetime plus 50 years. Previously under the old 1909 law, an author owned the copyright for 28 years from the date of publication and unless the copyright was renewed, the work entered the public domain, and the author lost any right to royalties. Ringer received the President’s Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service, the highest honor for a federal worker. Ringer remained active in copyright law for years, attending international conferences and filing briefs with the Supreme Court before her death earlier this year at age 83. ‘Her contributions were monumental,’ said Marybeth Peters, the Library of Congress’s current register of copyrights. ‘She blazed trails. She was a heroine.'”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Death Metal tips news that the Irish government has announced their decision to abandon e-voting and return to a paper-based system. “Ireland has already put about million into building out its e-voting infrastructure, but the country has apparently decided that it would be even more expensive to keep going with the system than it would be to just scrap it altogether.” John Gormley, Ireland’s Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, said, “It is clear from consideration of the Report of the Commission on Electronic Voting that significant additional costs would arise to advance electronic voting in Ireland. …the assurance of public confidence in the democratic system is of paramount importance and it is vital to bring clarity to the present situation.” He added that he still thinks there is a need for electoral reform.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.