Comments Elsewhere

Brad:

(1) Neither my actions nor my beliefs imply anything about those of “Copyfighters.” I am a reader of Copyfight; I’m not an author here and my beliefs are actually substantially different from those of the people who are. If you want to infer something about “how Copyfighters behave” from issues you have with me, you can do so, but you can hardly expect other people to take htat seriously.

(2) I described you as a priggish busybody because that’s what your comments expressed. There are lots of reasons that people might worry about the intersection of digital technology and 20th century business models for books, film, songs, etc. There may be perfectly good arguments to raise against Gigi Sohn’s claims about how, e.g., the film and music industry have responded to these concerns hurts consumers. But “other people are too cheap and it makes me mad” is not among those concerns and it is not one of those arguments. You might think they’re skinflints; you might think they’re classless or ungrateful to the people who make the things they enjoy possible. That’s fine. But why should you expect anyone else to care about the resentments you nurse on this question? And what in the world has it got to do with whether or not Gigi Sohn is right about consumers’ interests? Merely pointing out that you disagree with her conclusion is not a counter-argument. And claiming that she doesn’t “represent” you as a consumer isn’t either. The question is whether her arguments are cogent or uncogent, not how you feel about other music consumers.

(3) In the follow-up you remark that it might surprise me that many small-time professional copyright holders cheer on the legal actions of industry behemoths. It doesn’t; I’m already well aware of that (I have relatives trying to make their way in the lower end of the music business). That said, I can’t imagine why you think it’s relevant. The fact that someone has a small business rather than a large one is not a sign of moral superiority, and I don’t see any reason to think that the legally-enforced business model of small musicians, authors, etc. would be any more in tune with consumers’ interests than the legally-enforced business model of the big-time money-men who represent the bulkier end of the industry. I may like small independents a lot more than I like sanctimonious corporate money-men, but that doesn’t make a bit of difference to how their use of legal coercion and technological crippling affects me.

(4) As for commercial viability: I’m well aware of how modern sharing technology poses a challenge to the commercial viability of traditional business models of copyright holders, and perhaps especially those without the legal resources to try to take up the issue through the government. The question is what one thinks should be done about it. It’s not that I don’t want small copyright holders’ businesses to be commercially viable; it’s that I don’t care whether they are or not. The world does not owe you or anyone else a living, and those who today try to live as professional copyright holders have had to figure out ways to make do without rigid “intellectual property” protectionism for several thousand years of human history. If the only way to sustain the business model of the late 19th and 20th century is through escalating an already intense regime of legal coercion against consumers, then I can’t see any reason not to let it die.