October 7th, 2010 by Josh King, VP of Business Development and General Counsel

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Cory Doctorow wrote a thought-provoking piece this week on the fool’s errand of trying to stop the free flow – and copying – of information and entertainment online:

“The topic I leave my family and my desk to talk to people all over the world about is the risks to freedom arising from the failure of copyright giants to adapt to a world where it’s impossible to prevent copying. Because it is impossible. Despite 15 long years of the copyright wars, despite draconian laws and savage penalties, despite secret treaties and widespread censorship, despite millions spent on ill-advised copy-prevention tools, more copying takes place today than ever before.”

Whether we’re talking about works of art or government records, the internet has made all data much more freely accessible and transformable. This is an unequivocally good thing for the vast majority of people, who can enjoy, connect, create and learn in ways unimaginable a generation ago. Who isn’t it good for? Those who create desirable content, and those who profit by controlling access to information.

The reactionary, lawyerly answer is more of what we’ve had to date: more widespread censorship; more draconian laws. If piracy exists, we should legislate against it and go after the violators, right? The problem is that it doesn’t work. Legalistic efforts to stem this tide are no more effective than Prohibition or the “war on drugs”, and even more prone to pushing ancillary costs onto lawful uses. Slowing the internet down, denying access, creating barriers: All will catch a tiny percentage of pirated content, while burdening everyone else.

As Doctorow points out, we’re at a dangerous point, where ever-more-desperate media owners are seeking brute-force, intrusive methods of copyright enforcement. While such efforts will most certainly fail to achieve their goals, there is great potential for collateral damage. It’s time to replace this reactivity with creativity, with novel ways for copyright owners to adapt and thrive in a world where information flows freely.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 7th, 2010 at 12:05 pm by Josh King, VP of Business Development and General Counsel and is filed under Josh King Posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.