The entire media social structure is centered around "scoring" how much money each individual brings in. This can be seen by the Jayson Blair flap over at the New York Times. The reason he was in trouble was not that he lied - much larger lies are told each and every day by important people who are not in any danger of losing their jobs - but that he "stole" credit for someone elses contribution to the media stream, and hence their ability to be scored for drawing people in.
It is this scoring system - and the very large rewards that it gives to the top scorers - which drives the current copyright scheme. It is criminal theft of common property, and it is completely immoral according to the ideas that most people have in their day to day lives. It is also how the media system works, because the most valuable thing about the media system is that people pay attention to it. By and large, they sell that attention to advertisers. If people no longer gave that attention the network effect would work in reverse: defections produce less and less "value" to advertsers.
Unless some other way to run a media culture is found, this system of theft from the commons, and from users, will continue. Think about it - you pay for the computer, the space it is in, the electricity it uses. You are responsible for disposing of it - but other people get to determine what it does and how it does it. The copyright industry sees the computer as about one thing: getting to dump the cost of production on users, who will simply pay it because, well, consumers are stupid.
The other economic model however is also possible. Put a charge on computer equipment and connections, determine the "universe" of usage, and divide the charges among those who are producers of media or those who have bought the rights from the original producers. In this way there is a constant pressure to produce new upgrades and new material. The current model is, increasingly, encouraging the endless recycling of old material. Effectively making it so that you don't buy the material or a license to it, but the format. Own the record, cassette, CD and mp3 of the same song, and pay for each one.
The real solution is simpler: get off the grid. As long as you are dependent on others for your imaginative existence, the new opiate of the masses is entertainment, then other people will own that part of your brain that is devoted to mass entertainment, and will rent it back to you at whatever price the market will bear.
The wave of the future is for thinking people to get off the gird.
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Lessig audio interview here: http://www.bopnews.com/archives/000093.html
The entire media social structure is centered around "scoring" how much money each individual brings in. This can be seen by the Jayson Blair flap over at the New York Times. The reason he was in trouble was not that he lied - much larger lies are told each and every day by important people who are not in any danger of losing their jobs - but that he "stole" credit for someone elses contribution to the media stream, and hence their ability to be scored for drawing people in. It is this scoring system - and the very large rewards that it gives to the top scorers - which drives the current copyright scheme. It is criminal theft of common property, and it is completely immoral according to the ideas that most people have in their day to day lives. It is also how the media system works, because the most valuable thing about the media system is that people pay attention to it. By and large, they sell that attention to advertisers. If people no longer gave that attention the network effect would work in reverse: defections produce less and less "value" to advertsers. Unless some other way to run a media culture is found, this system of theft from the commons, and from users, will continue. Think about it - you pay for the computer, the space it is in, the electricity it uses. You are responsible for disposing of it - but other people get to determine what it does and how it does it. The copyright industry sees the computer as about one thing: getting to dump the cost of production on users, who will simply pay it because, well, consumers are stupid. The other economic model however is also possible. Put a charge on computer equipment and connections, determine the "universe" of usage, and divide the charges among those who are producers of media or those who have bought the rights from the original producers. In this way there is a constant pressure to produce new upgrades and new material. The current model is, increasingly, encouraging the endless recycling of old material. Effectively making it so that you don't buy the material or a license to it, but the format. Own the record, cassette, CD and mp3 of the same song, and pay for each one. The real solution is simpler: get off the grid. As long as you are dependent on others for your imaginative existence, the new opiate of the masses is entertainment, then other people will own that part of your brain that is devoted to mass entertainment, and will rent it back to you at whatever price the market will bear. The wave of the future is for thinking people to get off the gird.