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By David Rothman

image So what was missing from my just-made post on Lord Helprin,  protector of copyright? A picture of him.

But wait. Fair use still exists, as Lord Helprin’s publisher, the HarperCollins conglomerate, admits through its use of a Pac-Man image on the cover of Helprin’s book.

I doubt that Rupert Murdoch’s people paid for the rights to use the image in promoting Lord Helprin’s Digital Barbarianism.

image So—thus inspired—I‘m comfortable in reproducing the home page of Lord Helprin’s Web site to accompany my barbaric commentary on it.

Through this route we’re treated to a photo of Lord Helprin looking his lawyerly best. Never mind that Helprin isn’t an attorney (and no, our man isn’t a Lord, either, except as depicted here in my uppity way—just a copyright zealot with a medieval-level belief in “property rights”).

The Web site is the man. I’m struck by:

  • Some gratuitous use of the PDF format, as if Lord Helprin wanted to build a moat between him and the rest of the Web. His outdated Mark Halperin Publications List should be in both PDF and HTML, given the resources available to him and HarperCollins.

  • Citation after citation without external hyperlinks, even though PDF would allow them. Does this suggest a belief in a holy war against site-to-site links? Or just a would-be aristocrat full of himself? At any rate I don’t even see a link to his copyright essay in the New York Times that he bloated up in the form of Digital Barbarianism. He buries the mention within his PDF bibliography.
  • Novel excerpts no longer than four paragraphs at the most. Granted, these are long paragraphs. Still, I’m disappointed but not amazed by Helprin’s stinginess.
  • No chance for readers to interact with him, or at least none that’s very conspicuous. You can sign up for Helprin’s “News” mailings. That’s apparently about it.
  • Lord Helprin’s heavy reliance on conservative publications as outlets for his writings on various topics. I wonder what a true conservative in the Goldwater vein would think of Helprin’s wish for more government regulation. That’s what eternal copyright would bring—a bonanza for lawyers. How fitting that Lord Helprin looks like one on the Web. Luckily many conservatives do oppose extended copyright or at least have asked skeptical quesetions. Forbes has published some rather clueful mentions of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act.

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