SOPA and the Fight for Control of Online Content
posted by Frank Pasquale
I have an essay on the SOPA controversy at the Boston Review. My main point: SOPA and its ilk are terrible, but its opponents should rally behind a constructive alternative to promote funding for arts and culture. As I argue there:
SOPA has spawned a powerful alliance of netizens to support basic principles of due process, free expression, and accountability online. But this battle is merely a prelude to a much more contested debate about the proper allocation of digital revenues. Like health care battles between providers and insurers, struggles between content owners and intermediaries will profoundly shape our common life. Stopping SOPA is only one small step toward preserving a fair, free, and democratic culture online.
For other Co-Op commentary, here’s Danielle Citron, Gerard Magliocca, and Derek Bambauer.
January 18, 2012 at 2:10 pm
Posted in: Criminal Law, Current Events, Cyberlaw, Intellectual Property, Technology
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Responses (4)
PrometheeFeu - January 18, 2012 at 2:34 pm
I just don’t see why we need to subsidize culture. Despite (or maybe thanks to) rising piracy, more movies are produced every year, more music is recorded every year, more books are written every year. 2011 was the first time in 6 years that box office revenue did not set a record and the movie industry specifically said they thought it was because of the weak economy, not piracy. There is no piracy problem. We have a culture that is growing at an increasingly rapid pace and I’m just not sure what we need to fix. That’s all we need to care about.
Now let’s say we do care about artists making money and we are not ok with people creating art out of the goodness of their heart. Fear not! Musicians are making their money through live performances… as has always been the case. Movies can make early release deals with movie theaters. Physical books are not dead yet. When they do die, authors will make their money from speaking fees, readings, in-store events, etc… We don’t need to tax anyone to pay artists. Artists just need to do what they always have done: create art and then sell the surrounding scarcities.
Frank - January 18, 2012 at 2:52 pm
PrometheeFeu, I can see your side of things, and this story offers proof that new modes of financing are working for some musicians:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/05/14/136279162/an-internet-rock-star-tells-all
Lemley’s article on content industries saying “the sky is falling” is also good on that point.
But I also worry that there are a lot of worthy cultural institutions that are suffering from lack of funding. Jaron Lanier takes it to a funny (but telling) reductio ad absurdum in a recent lecture at the JFK school at Harvard: imagine a world where the only content is one person jumping on a pogo stick, and thousands just try to monetize that!
I’m just trying to find a new balance between intermediaries and creators, and to be sure that a critical mass of creative types can make a decent living.
PrometheeFeu - January 18, 2012 at 4:51 pm
@Frank:
“But I also worry that there are a lot of worthy cultural institutions that are suffering from lack of funding.”
As much as I would agree with that diagnostic, I think it’s hard to tell the difference between your desires not being met and actual market failures. I would be very hesitant to impose upon others the burden of funding cultural institutions which you and I might find worthy. That being said, if I can pay a couple bucks per year to drive a stake through copyright and its horrendous future, I’ll grumble, but I’ll do it.
Jay Levitt - January 19, 2012 at 1:57 am
But we *have* rallied around constructive alternatives. They’re called iTunes, and Netflix, and SoundCloud, and Youtube (which brilliantly converts takedown notices into monetization opportunities for the rightsholder), and Steam, whose co-founder has not only argued but demonstrated that piracy is a service problem, not a pricing problem:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114391-Valves-Gabe-Newell-Says-Piracy-Is-a-Service-Problem
The RIAA and MPAA do not care about constructive alternatives, because they are incapable of adapting to any. Most organizations don’t grow or change. They form around a core concept before it peaks, they monetize it through its decline, they struggle, and they die. This is the agonal gasp of the first modern age of publishing – the age when copying cost money.
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