Marsha Hairston
March 9, 2007
Theory of Internet Writing


The Bellagio Declaration

A group of diverse people with various backgrounds (many prestigious) wanted to make a change on how “intellectual property” was protected.The Bellagio Declaration addressed concerns regarding “intellectual property” and the effects that it had or will have on the international community. The rapid expansion of technology and the Internet influenced the creation of the declaration. This was because they (Bellagio groupers) believed that information was the most important resources. The declaration stated, “In general, we favor increased recognition and protection of the public domain. We call on the international community to expand the public domain through expansive application of concepts of “fair use,” compulsory licensing, and narrower initial coverage of property rights in the first place. Read”http://www.case.edu/affil/sce/BellagioDec.html.
The intent, just like with Lessig was not to steal from the original creator or owner, however, they felt that there should be opportunity for individuals to expand on an idea or concept that was already established...
Bellagio’s groupers like Lessig believed that few people benefited from the copyright laws. Lessig stated in his book (see Free Culture), only 6% really benefited from the copyright laws and these were generally the people that had the money and or power to get Congress to influence the copyright laws. The Bellagio documents states, “In general, systems built around the author paradigm tend to obscure the importance of the “public domain,” the intellectual and cultural commons from which future works will be constructed (see SCE -- IPCA -- Bellagio Declaration).
In the conclusion of the Bellagio Declaration it states, “since existing author-focused regimes are blind to the interest of non-authorial producers as well as to the importance of the commons, the main exception to this expansion of the public domain should be in favor of those who have been excluded by the authorial biases of current law.”
What has been made very clear to me in the readings is, we must become more knowledgeable and skillful in regards to technology, as well as stay abreast of the issues. Failure to do so would be like “sleeping through a revolution”.