Just received word that the World Copyright Summit is set for next month in Washington, D.C. (elevation 1 ft.). Isn't a summit an event where leaders, heads of state, potentates, and even a few despots gather to negotiate treaties and make hopeful declarations? The Paris Peace Conference, that was a summit. The secret meetings that produced the Camp David Accords? Summit. The two years of negotiations between the Egyptians and the Hittites that led to the world's first peace treaty, now that was a summit. Summit, meaning a peak, an extreme, a high point. Not just any old conference. Summum from the Latin dictionary. Summum bonum, the greatest good. Summum jus summum injuria, extreme justice is sometimes extreme injustice. If an event doesn't have world leaders deciding or declaring something then it's not a summit. And I don't see any world leaders on the World Copyright Summit agenda. Well OK, Robin Gibb is speaking. But I don't think he qualifies as a world leader, global disco craze notwithstanding. Gibb is a Commander of the Order of the British Empire and he did sing lead on several Bee Gees songs, but in terms of global stature he is nevertheless down a rung or two from Sir Paul, and I definitely don't consider Sir Paul -- arguably "bigger than Jesus" -- a world leader. Then there is the additional problem that neither Gibb nor anybody else is going to be negotiating anything important at the summit. Just a bunch of lawyers and execs asserting the same case-hardened views they've asserted a half-dozen times this year already. They don't even listen to each other's speeches. (Now, if the summitees were to come up with a mutually agreeable definition of fair use, maybe leave a penny or two on the table for the other guy, that might constitute a summit). World Copyright Summit, you are not a summit. Ditto for Privacy Summit, Tech Policy Summit, Broadband Policy Summit, Aspen Summit, Online Marketing Summit, Drug Development Summit, Social Media Success Summit, Sage Summit, Forecasting Summit(not about weather), Blog Business Summit, and National Bed Bug Summit. Summit promoters, you're on notice. I'm through with you.
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