How the War over Copyright Is Akin to the War on Terror

"They've got their radical factions, like the Ruby Ridge or Waco types."

—Association of American Publishers spokesperson Judith Platt discussing librarians, as quoted in 2001 in ZDNet News.

TERROR		COPYRIGHT
fundamentalism, freedom	IDEOLOGY	open access, ownership
terrorists	BOGEYMAN	file sharers
US government	POLICE	US government, copyright holders
Saddam, Bin Laden	ENEMY	Napster, librarians

In this scenario, the "enemy" category is the worst place to be. Get a file sharer and ten more will spring up in their place. File sharers are a phantom menace. But librarians have a real role. We are real people with jobs and organizations. We have real things to lose, which is what makes us real targets. Publishers think: get one of us and the rest might back off.

Librarians need to be prepared to defend our right to offer information access for the common good. And what we are armed with is what we are best at: information, a sense of history, and the good will of a public that sees that our interest is theirs.