Everyone should look at this video of a talk by Cory Doctorow.
People who know me, are aware that I am very concerned about our rights online. This is because every day we become more reliable on the Internet than ever before, yet our liberties our curtailed ever more. No one speaks more about this topic than Cory and really anyone in policy making or in the arts industry should hear him out. Perhaps not because he is right, but at the very least because he presents incredibly sensible counterarguments for anything that the copyright industry claims.
Nowhere has the problem of the copyright lobbies, become more clearly than in the letter sent by ASCAP last week, in which they try to warn and recruit their members in their fight against the 'copyleft' and 'pirate' movement, which they basically consider equal. However as many have pointed out, Creative Commons is about freedom of choice for producers and consumers of works alike. What the ASCAP letter shows is that these organizations do not represent the interests of composers, authors and publishers like they claim, they represent one single bussiness model that wants to prevent its members from making the choice for any other business model. (ASCAP was joined by NMPA this week)
Before we start increasing penalties and agreeing to incredibly hard to recall ACTA-like agreements, we should carefully consider what effect this can have on our lives. Please listen to Cory.
When you are as concerned as I am, please consider supporting Electronic Frontier Foundation or the Dutch Bits of Freedom.
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