For the next week or two I’ll be focusing (on Sunday and Wednesday, maybe Friday too) on issues surrounding intellectual property, copyrights, patents, etc. This is in light of the failure of SOPA and PIPA and the recent signing of ACTA by the European Union (still pending parliamentary ratification). In an interesting turn of events, Anonymous is taking action in this matter and preparing to go after the European Parliament if it is ratified.I made it clear over a year ago that I’m not a fan of some of Anonymous’ tactics, but in this case I have to at least smile.
At issue here are competing and conflicting rights. The producers of content have a right to profit from their work, just as I have a right to make money off the work I put into this blog (which I don’t because I don’t have a large enough audience to actually make any money off of AdSense). At the same time private citizens should have reasonable license to utilize content they purchase, reasonable standards of fair use, and a right to privacy.
This is all driven by powerful corporations (the labels and studios behind RIAA and MPAA) who are trying to protect an antiquated business model by twisting outdated legislation. It would kind of be like if wagon manufacturers had tried to get automobiles banned because it threatened their business model (oh yeah, they did, claiming they were unsafe).
Copyright and patent (those will be covered later) laws need to be updated to account for the fair use of intellectual content by people who now have powerful enough hardware and software to produce higher quality content than the professionals could just a few decades ago. The supreme court also will eventually need to rule on how online content fits with free speech and freedom of the press (is this blog my voice or am I publishing?) as well as the privacy of citizens on line and on their computers in what is essentially now an extension of their homes and personal, private lives.
New legislation is needed, but it needs to be done in a open, transparent, and democratic manner (unlike ACTA) and in a way that protects the rights of citizens, not just the rich companies that are buying votes (unlike SOPA and PIPA).