TPMs and Metaphors: the DMCA debate

I'm currently working on a paper for Klaus Krippendorff's class, Social Constructions of Reality. It's a discourse analysis of the debate surrounding 17 USC § 1201.

The central conclusion is that one of the most interesting and important threads of the debate is the wrangling over the metaphor of locked-down property. If I come up with anything profound or insightful and it goes anywhere, I'll be sure to post it on this, our copyright blog and source for general media policy and media criticism fun.

In the meantime, here's a link-fest for articles and other miscellany, listed in decreasing order of their relevance:

CNet coverage of a recent congressional hearing

Said hearing

LA Times opinion piece from today, arguing that the entertainment industry willingly shreds our fair use rights

Hackariffic Newsday piece today by Susan Cheever (who literally reduces your knowledge of copyright law by your reading her article) which literally claims that "words are property"

A brief description and full text of the Harper & Row v. The Nation case that Cheever certainly did not read but through fifth-hand misunderstanding apparently seems to be citing

If only there were enough discourse around to analyze...