« Playing RIAA Attorney for a Day (Jason Schultz) | Main | Congress Looks Out for Hollywood »
June 26, 2004
How Copyright Policy Gets Twisted
The Register's Andrew Orlowski analyzes the latest, and perhaps most serious, threat from the copyright cartel. The legislation, sponsored by senators from both major U.S. political parties (here's my previous posting about this horrid bill), is aimed at peer to peer technology but has a much wider application.
As Andrew notes, citing warnings from critics of this legislation, "It may soon be possible to carry around an AK-47 assault rifle and an iPod with you down the street - and be arrested for carrying the iPod."
He asks how this could be happening, given that Orrin Hatch, the key sponsor, once seemed to be on the side of fair use and other users' rights. Part of it is money, no doubt.
Andrew aims a well-deserved barb at the technology community for not taking its case to Congress in a more organized way, and this is also true. But I think he underestimates two things.
First, the tech industry's leaders have not just stopped fighting Hollywood and the record companies. They've embraced the cartel. This spectacular piece of cowardice, driven by a warped sense of what's in the tech moguls' best business interests, means that technology innovation must essentially be approved by the cartel or modified so as not to annoy the copyright industry.
Second, technologists have a remarkably short attention span. They flit from idea to idea, changing products and business models at the drop of a hat because they live in an ever-morphing universe where rapid change is the norm.
The copyright cartel has, if nothing else, a deep and abiding motivation to maintain control. It is relentless. It has basically one issue, and pockets deep enough to stay with the fight.
I tend to respect Hollywood and the music companies for their single-mindedness, even though I have little respect for their position on this matter. I have growing distaste for the technology industry, which seems to have few principles of any kind.
And the public interest gets squashed.
Posted by mikki at June 26, 2004 02:53 PM
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)