Holiday Spices, Copyright Debate

Have Yourself a Spicy Holiday Guest: Lior Lev Sercarz, Chef, Spice Blender and Owner of La Boi?te, A biscuits and Spice Shop in New York City There are certain spices that evoke the holidays: mutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, cloves. Why is that? Lior Lev Sercarz is a chef and the owner La Boi?te http://laboiteny.com/, a biscuits and spice shop in New York City. His custom spice blends are used by some of the city’s top chefs. He offers classes on how to make your own spice blends and he’s written a gorgeous book called “The Spice Companion” with everything you’d want to know about where the best spices come from, how they’re grown and what to do with them in your kitchen. A Debate about Copyright Laws in the Internet Age  Guests: Sean Pager, Professor of Law, Michigan State University; Rick Carnes, President of the Songwriters Guild of America; Aaron Perzanowski, Professor of Law, Case Western Reserve University; Kirby Ferguson, Filmmaker, Everything is a Remix The idea of owning your work is embedded in the Constitution. The nation’s founders gave Congress the ability to write laws that would give "authors and inventors exclusive right to their writings and discoveries" for a "limited time." In the case of patents – say for a cool new toy or a drug to treat cancer - that exclusive right lasts for 20 years. If you come up with a new way of expressing idea – say in a book, a painting or a song – you get a copyright, instead of a patent. And that copyright lasts for the rest of your life, plus 70 years. Today there are ways to create and share work the founders couldn’t have dreamed of. And while copyright laws have been updated over time, the internet has us wondering in a serious way whether they strike the right balance.