Posted 10:19 AM by Dave Allen
Dave Weinberger on copyright arguments

http://hyperorg.com/blogger/

I lost an argument about copyright protection on the Internet the
other night. I lost the same argument a couple of weeks ago. In fact,
I lose this argument every time I have it. Most recently, to a
Washington lawyer at a semi-friendly business dinner. I said that
we've always been allowed to make copies of music and books: Yes, but,
the lawyer said, the Internet lets one copy serve thousands of people.
I said, the record companies rip off the artists who only get a buck
or two out of the 15 to 20 we pay. Yesbut, says the lawyer, that's the
contract they signed and you don't have the right to deprive them of
those few dollars. I said, photocopiers are used to violate copyright
all the time, and we're not talking about disabling them. Yesbut
digital technology gives us a way of protecting intellectual property
and we have no excuse not to use it.

We'd started arguing when the soup was served and would have made it
all the way to figuring out the tip, except around the time that we
were putting down the dessert menus, I realized what I actually
believe. (Took me long enough.) "Look," I said, "I know my argument
isn't coherent. I can't defend the things I'm saying. But, I haven't
really said what matters to me. I'm not looking for free music. I'm 51
and employed. I can buy the music I want. And I'm a writer; I'm in
favor of people getting paid for what they create. The fact is I don't
know what the law should look like . But I do know in my heart three
things.

First, the industry's gotta change. We have a recording business that
was built around its ability to solve what was once a really hard
problem - distributing music. Now any 11 year old with Internet access
can solve it. So, the current recording industry has to change or > fail.

Second, I don't think any of us know how to change it. Our current
common sense doesn't work. I mean, we protect intellectual property,
but our own government has a system for making a single copy of a book
available for free to thousands of people without the author getting a
dime. It's called the public library. But we're ok with that. We don't
yet know what we're going to be ok with on the Web. It's too early and
it's too different and we should be careful of making bad, hasty
decisions.

Third, and this is really what matters to me. The very thing the most
conservative among us have dreamt of, have died for since the founding
of this country, is now within our grasp: free markets, free speech,
worldwide. And we're blowing it because some dinosaur companies insist
on maintaining their grip on every last dollar before their industry
dies. 500 million of us can see how close it is, how the world economy
would blossom, how the human spirit would get dizzy with possibility,
and we're arguing about how we can best prevent it? We should be
talking about how we can explode the barriers.

So, I don't know how the law should change. I'm not a lawyer or
legislator. But what's at stake isn't whether some of us get music
without paying for it but the type of world we're building. We're have
the chance to move from a world based on scarcity and greed to one
built on abundance and generosity. And the effect will be evolutionary
growth ....unless we stay really stupid about it.

That's what I said. Then we had coffee. Nothing changed.

Dave Weinberger