• http://www.digital-scholarship.com/cwb/DigitalDystopia.pdf

Charles Bailey , who runs Digital-Scholarship.Com , has posted a pre-print of his contribution  "Strong Copyright + DRM + Weak Net Neutrality = Digital Dystopia?"  to the forthcoming Information Technology and Libraries . Bailey via his blog provides a nice synopsis of his piece:

"What this paper has said is simply this: three issues—a dramatic expansion of the scope, duration, and punitive nature of copyright laws; the ability of DRM to lock-down content in an unprecedented fashion; and the erosion of Net neutrality—bear careful scrutiny by those who believe that the Internet has fostered (and will continue to foster) a digital revolution that has resulted in an extraordinary explosion of innovation, creativity, and information dissemination. These issues may well determine whether the much-touted "information superhighway" lives up to its promise or simply becomes the "information toll road" of the future, ironically resembling the pre-Internet online services of the past." 

While there are myriad reasons for us all  to be interested in the intersection of copyright, DRM, and Net Neutrality, since how the law and the technology play themselves out in the next few years will have a profound influence on all aspects of how we communicate and participate in our culture, Bailey's essay reminds us that our libraries face particular challenges by these developments. Those of us who count on libraries to provide robust access to the scholarly record need to understand these developments, and to take action to do what we can to prevent the creation of Bailey's digital dystopia.