Google Nabs EFF Lawyer Fred von Lohmann

THR, Esq. has reported that Google has grabbed star public-interest copyright lawyer Fred von Lohmann from the Electronic Frontier Foundation to join up as senior copyright counsel. Previously, I linked to one of von Lohmann's posts on the EFF Deep Links blog about how music bloggers can keep from getting into trouble with litigious record companies. Google is usually on the public-interest side of copyright battles. Indeed, in my opinion, Google has done more than anyone else in contemporary times to push back against the unceasing expansion of copyright entitlements. But it's a mistake to think that Google is a charitably minded do-gooder. Google pushes back against copyright because it's usually in its interest to do so. But make no mistake, Google is ready to assert copyright in dubious ways when doing so is in itself interest. (See, e.g., the Google Books settlement, my takes here and here.) In 2005, von Lohmann wrote a blog post for EFF in which he described his "conversion moment." It was in 1994 when he read John Perry Barlow's essay, The Economy of Idea, which includes this passage, quoted by von Lohmann: "The greatest constraint on your future liberties may come not from government but from corporate legal departments ... " Google's a fantastic company, and I congratulate von Lohman on his new job. There's no shame in working for a for-profit company - I've done a lot of that myself. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with moving from public-interest work to for-profit work. None at all. But von Lohmann is the latest in a string of public-interest-minded IP lawyers that have been hired by Google. And that gives me pause. They can't all go. We still need great public-interest copyright lawyers. Now more than ever.

Comments

[Jonathanarogers]

Hopefully this is one of those instances where "working from the inside" could be a very good thing. Combining EFF's policies with Google's might could be a powerful lobby for positive copyright argument.