Who owns the tunes?

Copyright and the variations of laws about it have troubled librarians for years, but seldom has it been as major a concern as it is today with electronic downloading of copyright material. Lawrence Lessig of Stanford University has written several books on the way copyright has been handled in the U.S. over the years. His latest book Remix deals with how government should handle the difficult problem of downloading and using music from the Internet. A fascinating review from the U.K.'s Independent compares Lessig's views with a fictional exploration of the revolt of techies portrayed in Little Brother. Although these issues may seem remote from the world of children's librarians, children grow into teenagers very quickly and they learn how to download and reuse both ideas and music. Is this creativity a good thing or do the rights of the creators of art and information overshadow all other concerns? This is something all librarians need to think about, and here is a little reading to get us started.