In January, Salman Rushdie was 92nd Y in New York attending something called The Moral Courage Conversations together with Irshad Manji. A brief interlude among the questions was whether or not he saw copyright as an impediment to freedom of speech. So while I was waiting for a deep understanding from one of my favorite authors on a topic that interests me deeply.
Question: Have you considered copyright law as an barrier to free speech?
Rushdie: er,…no… but that’s because I write for a living…
Then Rushdie launches into an interesting perspective on book piracy. In particular to the problem of illegal copies of his work being made. Actually he does not throw any light on the role of Internet in this question but it does raise an interesting perspective which we digital copyright activists tend to forget in our focus on file sharing. Rushdie is is as eloquent as ever. humorous in the face of piracy.
The question comes a long way in the video at 1 hour 10 ten minutes 55 seconds (ends about 1 hour, 14 minutes 40 seconds)