Welcome to the not-old-better show

Your host Paul Bulblzang.

As part of our Smithsonian Associates Partnership Program,

our guest today, Scott Terrow,

will be presenting his wide ranging subjects and expertise including his

new book Testimony May 18th in Washington DC at the Ridley Center.

For ticket information please check our website or at Smithsonian Associates.org.

Scott and I know each other from the world of copyright where both of us have helped protect artists' rights.

Scott is a well-known advocate, does much more

than I, and much more than most to balance the goals of a free society and balance the needs

of content creators and preserving artists' rights

against the technology companies who hope to profit from looser copyright policies

to provide content more freely online.

In anticipation of our conversation today, I want to quote William Blake,

the visionary artist and poet of the 18th century who says a blight never does good to a tree and if

the tree still bear fruit let none say that the fruit was in consequence of the blight.

Creative drive can often withstand periods of blight,

but as Blake says, creativity is not in consequence of the blind. That means that the protection of

copyright so that artists can enjoy the figurative fruits of their labors is

deeply related to the protection of creativity.

The best of Shakespeare's plays, Dickens, and Tolstoy's novels and the Beatles music were all created at the apogee of success when their

creators were living in relative comfort earned by the popularity of their work.

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