There is a lot of blog buzz right now about photographer Lane Hartwell’s YouTube takedown of the clever Web 2.0 spoof video. Daya referenced that video here on the WebGuild blog a week or so back. Matt Ingram has a very thoughtful post about this suggesting Lane is wrong to bring the suit, and has no legal case anyway.

CORRECTION: There is NO lawsuit here, and the blogs have overreacted! Here is Lane’s take:
http://fetching.net/2007/12/there-is-no-lawsuit-against-the-richter-scales/

I agree but remain torn about the broader issues here. My guess is that Lane’s concerns about using her pictures really were blown off by guys who have little concern for copyright, and this cavalier attitude is one of the reasons it is hard to make good progress in this area.

My personal view on copyright is that we should experiment with much more liberal laws about fair use, but it rings hollow to me when many online folks simply pretend that commercial use is fair use and either ignore the law or treat content producers as suckers in the process of pushing information online.

The compromise? Let’s have a lot more respect for people who create content and be sure to give appropriate credit, but whenever possible let’s fling open the door to the widespread dissemination of information and ideas.